CHAP. XI. Summary of the history of France Violent measures of Edward the third in Ireland-Faction of English by birth and English by blood-Ufford's adminiftration Turbulence of a prelate-Rokeby's regulations -Prince Lionel chief governor-Abfurd conductStatute of Kilkenny. -Tranfactions pofterior to it Irifb chiefs penfioned to protect the colonyRevenue of Ireland-Foul reputation-Defeat of a French and Spanish fleet at Kinfale- Acceffion of Richard the fecond-Difgrace of Philip De Courtney Abortive fchemes of conqueft- Robert de Vere Marquis of Dublin-Feigned fubmiffion of O'Nial to Sir John Stanley-Abortive appointment of the Duke of Gloucester. СНАР. XI. France. THE most ancient inhabitants of France, of whom we have accounts, were Gaels, named by the Romans Galli, or, as we fay, Gauls, a Celtic people, con- History of generous with the aboriginal Irish. The earlieft colony, which we find planted among them, was that of Maffilia, now called Marseilles, founded by the Phoceans, a Grecian people of Ionia, probably between five and fix centuries before the christian era. Haraffed by fome neigbouring tribes, the citizens of Maffilia requested aid from the Romans, an army of whom, under Sextus Calvinus, planted a Roman colony, the first of that nation ever brought into France, at Aquæ Sextiæ, now called Aix in Provence, a hundred VOL. I. N CHAP. a hundred and twenty-one years before the birth of our Saviour. In two years after this, the countries now called Savoy and Dauphine were reduced into a Roman province, or Provincia, whence is derived the modern appellation of Provence. The celebrated Julius Cæfar, having, fifty-feven years before the christian era, been appointed to the command of this province, made in eight years a complete conqueft of all the warlike, but difunited tribes of France from the Rhine to the ocean. He found this extenfive region inhabited by three distinct races of men, differ. ent in origin, language, customs, and laws, the Celts, the Belgians, and the Aquitainans, each compofed of several small nations. During four centuries and a half the yoke of Roman government oppreffed and civilized the people of Gallia or France, who in course of time became fo Romanized, that the greater part of them forgot their vernacular dialects, and adopted the Latin language in their place. The feparation of this country from the empire of Rome we may date from the year 407 of the chriftian era, when armies of Goths, under various denominations, croffed the Rhine into the Gallic territories, without afterwards retreating from the invaded country. Among the tribes who ravaged and fettled in this part of Europe the Franks were ultimately the predominant nation. This people, from whom the country received its present name, appear to have originated from a voluntary union of many tribes, who denominated themfelves Franks, a term denoting freemen. The founder of the French monarchy was Clovis, who 3 fucceeded XI. fucceeded in the year 481, at the age of fifteen, to CHAP. the command of a Frankish tribe denominated Salians, dwelling in the territories of Tournay and Arras, unable to furnish an army of more than five thoufand men. At the age of nineteen he commenced his military career, and, as in the course of his exploits other Frankish tribes crowded to his ftandard, at the time of his death, in the year 511, his dominion extended over almoft the whole of ancient Gaul. His four fons, among whom his territories were divided, completed the conqueft of modern France before the end of the year 532. The dominion was afterwards united under one monarch, but the pofterity of, Clovis became fo degenerate as to obtain in history the title of Lazy Kings, rendering themselves mere cyphers of state, while the administration of the realm devolved on the mayor of the palace, who was steward of the household. This office became hereditary; and Pepin the fhort, the last who held it, mounting the throne by an almost blameless usurpation, added the title to the power of king in the year 751. Thus to the first line of monarchs, bearing the names of long haired and Merovingian, fucceeded the fecond, denominated the Carlovingian race. After the death of Charlemagne, or Charles the great, the fecond of this line, the reader of the French hiftory is apt to turn in disgust from the dark and perplexed annals of the fucceeding reigns, distracted by the inroads of Norman pirates, domeftic diffenfions, and feudal anarchy. The heads of a noxious ariftocracy, the holders of great fiefs, grew into a power totally incompatible N 2 XI. CHAP. compatible with public tranquillity: the royal demesnes and authority were almost annihilated, and the conftitution was rent between the extremes of defpotism and anarchy; defpotifm in the fiefs, and anarchy in the state. To remedy thefe intolerable disorders, the nobles and clergy, at the decease of Lewis the fifth, the laft king of the Carlovingian dynasty, elected Hugh Capet, the poffeffor of the most powerful fief, who, afcending the throne in 987, gave commencement to the third line of monarchs, that of the Capets, who retained the crown eight hundred years to the great revolution which commenced in 1787. In the Merovingian dynasty the monarchy had been hereditary; in the Carlovingian it was understood to be elective; but the choice was confined to the family of Charlemagne, and the fucceffion proceeded nearly as if it were hereditary. In the dynasty. of the Capets hereditary right was fully established in the line of primogeniture, but females by tacit custom, not by old Salique or Salian laws, as has by fome been fuppofed, were excluded from the throne. The nobility long retained their defpotifm in the fiefs, and the king had little more preponderance among them than what arose from the fuperior force of his patrimonial estates. The political annexion of the great dutchy of Normandy with the realm of England, by the conqueft of the latter under William the Bastard in 1066, occafioned an intercourfe of England with France, which infeparably blended the hiftories of the two countries in fucceeding times. Many wars had happened, but no national antipathy had place before XI. before the reign of Edward the third of England. CHAP. On the death of Lewis Hutin, king of France, without male iffue, the crown devolved to his brother Philip the long; and, on the decease of the latter, to a third brother, Charles the fair. Charles alfo dying without male iffue, his nearest male relative, Philip de Valois, his coufin-german, with the almost unanimous approbation of the French, in 1328 afcended the vacant throne. The warlike Edward the third, though he at firft recognized the right of Philip, yet afterwards claimed the French crown in right of his mother Isabella, fifter of Charles the fair. This claim was quite futile, fince the cuftom of the French admitted no female right of regal fucceffion, and fince, if it were admitted, the claims of other females were preferable to that of Ifabella. But Edward, who failed in weight of argument, had recourse to force, and invading France, on the fide of the Netherlands, in pursuit of this ideal object, commenced in 1339 a ruinous war; ruinous to France, whofe territories were many years expofed to rueful devastations; to England exhausted of men and money; to Britain in general, which might by the prowess of such a prince have been all united into one kingdom; and to Ireland, which was thus neglected, and miferably abandoned to difaftrous feuds and other evils of anarchy. Unable to procure a fupply of revenue from this country, and enraged at a deficiency caufed in great part by his own neglect of the peace and profperity of the kingdom, he proceeded to take measures as rafh as unjust, |