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He reunited to the crown a country as valuable as what belonged to it before; he reduced his subjects of all orders to a stricter obedience than they had given to his predecessors.

He with

stood the papal usurpation, and yet used it as an instrument in his designs; whilst John, who inherited a great territory, and an entire prerogative, by his vices and weakness gave up his independency to the Pope, his prerogative to his subjects, and a large part of his dominions to the king of France.

BURKE.

When Giraldus delineated the characters of the four sons of Henry, John had already debased his faculties by excess and voluptuousness. The courtly eye of the preceptor could indeed discover the germ of future excellence in his pupil; but history has recorded only his vices: his virtues, if such a monster could possess virtues, were unseen or forgotten. He stands before us polluted with meanness, cruelty, perjury, and murder; uniting with an ambition, which rushed through every crime to the attainment of its object, a pusillanimity which often, at the sole appearance of opposition, sank into despondency. Arrogant in prosperity, abject in adversity, he neither conciliated affection in the one, nor excited esteem in the other. His dissimulation was so well known, that it seldom deceived his suspicion served only to multiply his enemies: and the knowledge of his vindictive temper contributed to keep open the breach between him and those who had incurred his displeasure. Seldom per

haps was there a prince with a heart more callous to the suggestions of pity. Of his captives many never returned from their dungeons. If they survived their tortures, they were left to perish by famine. He could even affect to be witty at the expense of his victims. When Geoffry, archdeacon of Norwich, a faithful servant, had retired from his seat at the exchequer on account of the interdict, the king ordered him to be arrested, and sent him a cope of lead to keep him warm in his prison. The cope was a large mantle, covering the body from the shoulders to the feet, and worn by clergymen during the service. Wrapped in this ponderous habit, with his head only at liberty, the unhappy man remained without food or assistance till he expired. On another occasion he demanded a present of ten thousand marks from an opulent Jew at Bristol, and ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every morning till he should pay the money. The Jew was obstinate. The executioners began with his double teeth. He suffered the loss of seven, but on the eighth day solicited a respite, and gave security for the payment.

John was not less reprehensible as a husband than he was as a monarch. While Louis took from him his provinces on the continent, he had consoled himself for the loss in the company of his beautiful bride: but he soon abandoned her to revert to his former habits. The licentiousness of his amours is reckoned by every ancient writer among the principal causes of the alienation of his barons, many of whom had to lament and revenge the disgrace of a wife, or daughter,

or sister. Isabella, to punish the infidelity, imitated the conduct of her husband. But John was not to be insulted with impunity. He hanged her gallants over her bed. She bore him three sons, Henry, Richard, and Edmund; and three daughters, Jane, Eleanor, and Isabella. His illegitimate children were numerous. Nine sons and one daughter are mentioned by historians.

LINGARD.

HENRY III.

GENTLE and credulous, warm in his attachments, and forgiving in his enmities, without vices, but also without energy, he was a good man, and a weak monarch. In a more peaceful age, when the empire of the laws had been strengthened by habits of obedience, he might have filled the throne with decency, perhaps with honour: but his lot cast him into one of the most turbulent periods of our history, without the talents to command respect, or the authority to enforce submission. Yet his incapacity was productive rather of inconvenience to himself than of misery to his subjects. Under his weak but pacific sway the nation grew more rapidly in wealth and prosperity than it had done under any of his military progenitors. Out of the fifty-six years, through which he extended his reign, but a very small portion was marked by the calamities of war: the tenants of the crown were seldom dragged by him into foreign countries, or impoverished by scutages for the support of mercenary armies:

the proprietors, deprived of two sources of wealth, the plunder of an enemy, and the ransom of captives, turned their attention to the improvement of their estates: salutary enactments invigorated the spirit of commerce: and there scarcely existed a port from the coast of Norway to the shores of Italy that was not annually visited by English merchants. This statement may perhaps surprise those who have listened only to the remonstrances of factious barons, or the complaints of discontented historians: but the fact is, that of all the kings since the conquest, Henry received the least money from the tenants of the crown. According to the most accurate calculation, the average amount of his expenses did not exceed twenty-four thousand marks per annum and we are assured that in the course of a reign which continued half a century, the only extraordinary aids levied by him on the nation were two fifteenths, one thirtieth, and one fortieth for himself, and one twentieth for the relief of the Holy Land. His great resource was the tenth of the ecclesiastical revenues, which he received for some years: an impost which, though insufficient to rescue him from the pressure of poverty, was calculated from its partial operation to exasperate the minds of those who were compelled to pay it. The clergy struggled in vain to shake off the burden; their writers have laboured more successfully to interest in their favour the feelings of posterity by the description, probably the exaggerated description, of their wrongs.

LINGARD.

EDWARD I.

EDWARD (at his accession) had now reached his thirty-sixth year. In his person he was tall, but well proportioned: the length of his arm gave additional force to his stroke; and when he was once placed in his saddle, no struggle of his horse, no violence of the enemy could dislodge him from his seat. In temper he was warm and irascible, impatient of injury, and reckless of danger: but his anger might be disarmed by submission, and his temerity seemed to be justified by success. During the late contest with the barons he had proved the solidity of his judgment, and the resolution of his mind and his reputation had been established among the admirers of chivalry by his prowess in battles, in tournaments, and in his expedition to Palestine. In ambition he did not yield to any of his predecessors: but his ambition aimed at a very different object. They had exhausted their strength in attempting conquests on the continent, which might be wrested from them at any time by a fortunate neighbour: he aspired to unite in himself the sovereignty of the whole island of Great Britain. Nor was he entirely disappointed. Wales was incorporated with England; and the independence of Scotland sought an asylum in the midst of morasses, forests, and mountains. LINGARD,

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