and that he had hired assassins to murder the marquess of Montferrat. To these accusations Richard replied in a manly and energetic speech, which was received by the princes of the diet with great applause, and which induced Henry to consent to treat about his ransom. A convention was executed between the emperor and king, by which it was in effect agreed that Richard should receive his liberty on paying 100,000 marks of silver to the emperor. Longchamp was now despatched to England with a letter to the council of regency, calling upon them to adopt measures for raising and transmitting the stipulated ranTo raise this sum, the plate of all the churches and monasteries was taken, and one-fourth of every man's income, and England, says an ancient annalist, "from sea to sea was reduced to the utmost dis-. tress." Meanwhile John and the French monarch did every thing in their power to detain Richard in captivity; but the interference of the German princes, who had become sureties for the release of the English monarch, compelled the emperor to observe his engagement, and on the 13th of March, 1194, Richard landed at Sandwich amidst the acclamations of his subjects, after an absence of more than four som. years.10 During Richard's absence from England, his brother John, prompted and supported by Philip of France, had disturbed England and Normandy by repeated insurrections. Richard now pronounced John an outlaw, and engaged in a series of military operations against Philip, which were pursued with little advantage to either party, until the death of Richard before Chaluz, the obscure castle of a rebellious vassal in Limousin, on the 24th of March 1199. His body was buried at Fontevraud: his lion-heart he bequeathed to the citizens of Rouen, in gratitude for their loyalty and attachment to him." Richard's fame was purely that of a warrior. When we have given him the praise of indomitable valour, his panegyric is finished. "He has been compared," says Mackintosh, "to Achilles, but the greatest of poets chose to adorn his savage hero with sorrow for the fate of Patroclus, a sort of infirmity which cannot be imputed to Richard, who had, in every respect, the heart of the lion." John. BORN A. D. 1167.—died A. D. 1216. RICHARD died without legitimate issue. In the strict order of hereditary succession his crown devolved to his nephew Arthur, the son of Geoffrey, Richard's elder brother, and duke of Bretagne, whom Richard, when he entered on the holy war, had formally declared his heir apparent. But, while on his death-bed, Richard declared his brother John his successor, and bequeathed to him three-fourths of his treasures. Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, the domains of the Plantagenets, with Poitou, declared for Arthur: while Normandy and Guienne acknowledged John. In England, Archbishop Hubert, William the marshal, and the justiciary Fitz-Peter, supported John and procured his coronation at Westminster; but the French monarch made show of 10 Hoved. 417 11 Ib 449. supporting the cause of the orphan Arthur, to whom he gave his daughter Mary in marriage. A long and fruitless struggle with Philip marks the first years of John's reign. The controversy whether the Capets or the Plantagenets were to take the lead among the princes of France was thus revived. and the vigorous genius of Philip finally determined in favour of the house of Capet. But the fortune of war in the opening of the struggle favoured John, and placed his rival Arthur in his hands, who disappeared within a few weeks, and whose fate report ascribes to the dagger of his remorseless uncle. Whether the guilt of so foul a crime really rested upon John or not, it suited Philip's policy to affect to believe the charge, and to summon John, as duke of Normandy, to prove his innocence, in the presence of the French peers, of the crime of having murdered an arrière vassal of the French crown. John declined appearance, and the court pronounced judgment in absence, declaring that "whereas John, duke of Normandy, in violation of his oath to Philip his lord, had murdered the son of his elder brother, a homager of the crown of France, and near kinsman to the king, and had perpetrated the crime within the signiory of France; he was found guilty of felony and treason, and was therefore adjudged to forfeit all the lands which he held by homage." This sentence was followed up by the annexation of the counties of Touraine, Maine, and Anjou to the French crown in 1203, the duchy of Normandy in 1205, and the county of Poitou in 1206. The attempts of John to recover his domains were alike pusillanimous and imbecile. While, one after another. his strongest castles were falling into the hands of his powerful rival, he was leading a life of inglorious indolence, amidst a gay and voluptuous court, at Rouen; nor was it until the reduction of Radipont, in the vicinity of that city, that he awoke from his lethargy, and fled with precipitation to England. A truce was ultimately concluded between the two kings on the 26th of October, 1206, by which all the provinces north of the Loire were in effect ceded to the king. This unfortunate contest with the French king was followed by another with the Roman pontiff, differing indeed in its object, but equally disgraceful in its result. A dispute had for some time existed regarding the right claimed by the monks of St Augustin's abbey in Canterbury to elect the archbishop of that see. This right was denied by the suffragan bishops of the province; and at the death of each successive archbishop, the contest was resumed between the two parties. The king always supported the prelates, whom he found more accessible to the influence of the crown, than the monks who, according to the genius of their order, were devoted to Rome; and the pope as naturally supported the monks. On the death of Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, the monks, at the instigation of Pope Innocent. chose Stephen Langton to the vacant see. John declared that he would never allow Langton to set a foot in England in the character of primate; and the pope in return laid his dominions under an interdict, which was published at London by the three bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester. The churches were instantly closed; no bell was tolled; no service solemnly performed; the administra Felonia est delictum vassalli in dominum quo feudum amittitur.-Du Cange in voc. Westm. 264. tion of the sacraments, except to infants and the dying, was piohibited; and the dead were silently buried in unconsecrated ground The interdict was even followed by excommunication and consequent deposition; but the laity seem to have been little affected by such solemn proceedings, and the only successful expeditions of John's reign, those against Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, were conducted during the period of his proscription by the Roman see. John might indeed have laughed at the impotent resentment of the holy father, had no monarch been found willing to undertake the execution of the sentence of deposition. But this was a piece of service which Philip of France readily undertook. A numerous army was summoned to assemble at Rouen, and an armament of 1700 vessels prepared to make a descent upon the English coast. John did not again remain an idle spectator of the storm which was gathering around him; but Pandulph, the pope's legate, so worked upon his fears, that he resolved rather to avert it by negotiation and compromise, than to brave its fury. He agreed to admit Langton to the archbishopric of Canterbury, and to repair all damage which the bishops and clergy had suffered at his hands: he also consummated his disgrace by taking the very same oath of fealty to the pope, which vassals took to their lords, and consenting to pay an annual tribute of 700 marks of silver for England, and 300 for Ireland. On the 15th of May, 1213, he put into the hands of the legate a charter subscribed by himself, one archbishop, one bishop, nine earls, and two barons, testifying that, as an atonement for his offences against God and the church, he had deter mined to humble himself, and had, therefore, not through fear or force, but of free will, and with the unanimous consent of his barons, granted to the pope and his rightful successors the kingdom of England and the kingdom of Ireland, to be held of him and of the Roman church in fee, by the annual rent of 1000 marks, with the reservation to himself and his heirs of the administration of justice, and the peculiar rights of the crown.3 The nuncio, thereupon, intimated to Philip that he must no longer molest a penitent son, and faithful vassal of the holy see, nor invade a kingdom which was now a part of the patrimony of St Peter. The king of France received this intimation with high displeasure, and proceeded to indemnify himself for the expenses to which he had been put by the seizure of Flanders; but a fleet despatched by John, under the earl of Salisbury, defeated his design, and the independence of Flanders was preserved. The third great event of this reign was still more memorable than either of the preceding. John had disgusted his barons by his pusillanimity, and enraged them by his insolent bearing towards their wives and daughters; his last act of submission to the pope excited their universal disgust and alienation, while his endless exactions and impositions discontented all ranks of men. His attempt on the honour of the beautiful wife of Eustace De Vescy, a distinguished baron, roused the barons to their first open act of resistance. On the 20th of November, 1213, an assembly of that body met at the abbey of St Edmundsbury, where they solemnly swore upon the high altar to withdraw themselves from the king's fealty, and to wage war against him. 3 Paris 199. till he should confirm by a charter the liberties which they demanded. They agreed that, after the festival of Christmas, they would prefer in a body their common petition, and in the meantime they mutually engaged to put themselves in a posture for obtaining by force of arms, if necessary, what they would first demand as a matter of right. Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, espoused the cause of the confederated barons, and undertook to communicate their demands to the king. On hearing them, the king, with a scornful sneer, exclaimed, "They might as well have demanded my crown!" and swore never to grant his nobles such privileges as would make himself a slave. The barons received the announcement of the king's determination with equal indignation, and instantly marched upon London, under Robert Fitzwalter, as their generalissimo. The pope in vain interfered to quell the rising storm, and issued a bull in favour of his vassal: John was left almost without a single follower, while the whole nobility and gentry of the kingdom, with the yeomanry and free peasantry, and the citizens of London, made common cause with each other. In this state of things, one only course remained for John to pursue. He informed the confederates that he was ready to grant their petition, and requested them to name a day and place for the conferences. On the 15th of June, both parties advanced to a place called Runnymede, on the banks of the Thames, where they opened a conference which lasted four days. An instrument containing the demands of the confederates, or the heads of their grievances, and the means of redress, was presented to the king, who, according to the custom of the times, directed that the several articles should be reduced into the form of a charter, and in this state promulgated as a regal grant.* We have already attempted to show, in our historical introduction to this period, that this charter, so celebrated in history as the supposed basis on which are founded the liberties of Englishmen, although it contained some provisions in favour of the people, chiefly consulted the interests of the barons." We will here present the reader with the views which one of our most enlightened statesmen has taken of this important document:-" Many parts of the great charter," says Sir James Mackintosh, 66 were pointed against the abuses of the power of the king as lord paramount, and have lost their importance since the downfall of the system of feuds, which it was their purpose to mitigate. But it contains a few maxims of just government, applicable to all places and times, of which it is hardly possible to over-rate the importance of the first promulgation by the supreme authority of a powerful and renowned nation. Some clauses, though limited in words by feudal relations, yet covered general principles of equity, which were not slowly unfolded by the example of the charter, and by their obvious application to the safety and well-being of the whole community. "Aids, or assistance in money, were due from any vassal for the ransom of the lord, for the knighting of his eldest son, and for the mar riage of his eldest daughter; but they were often extorted when no such reasons could be urged. Escuage, or scutage, was a pecuniary compensation for military service; but as the approach of war was an easy pretext, it was liable to become almost arbitrary. Taillage, an impost assessed on cities and towns, and on freemen who owed no military service, according to an estimate of their income, was in its nature very arbitrary. In this case, however, the barons showed no indifference to the lot of the inferior classes; for in their articles they require a parliamentary consent to the taillages of London and all other towns, as much as to the aids and scutages which fell upon themselves." By the charter itself, however, taillage was omitted; the liberties of London and other towns were generally asserted. But it contained the memorable provision,- No scutage, or aid, shall be raised in our kingdom, except in the above three cases, but by the general council of the kingdom;'-' a concession which, though from motives unknown to us, was not so extensive as the demand, yet applied to bodies so numerous and considerable as sufficiently to declare a principle, which could not long continue barren, that the consent of the community is essential to just taxation; which, in the first instance, guarded against arbitrary exaction, and in due time showed the means of peaceably subjecting the regal power to parliamentary and national opinion. By the charter, as confirmed in the first year of the next reign, even scutages and aids were reserved for further consideration as grave and doubtful matters. But the formidable principle had gone forth. Every species of impost, without the consent of parliament, was not expressly renounced till the statute called Confirmatio Chartarum, in the twentyfifth year of Edward I., fourscore years after the grant of the Great Charter. the "To constitute this common council for the levy of aids, says charter, we shall cause the prelates and greater barons to be separately summoned by our letters; and we shall direct our sheriffs and bailiffs to summon generally all who hold of us in chief; and we shall take care to publish the cause of the summons in the same way, and give forty days' notice of the meeting.' "To the upper house of our modern parliament this clause is still perfectly applicable. From the lower house the common council of John's charter essentially differs, in excluding representation, and in confining the right of concurrence in imposing taxes to the direct tenants of the crown. It presents, however, the first outline of a parliamentary con stitution. The chapters on this subject, with others less important were postponed till after further consideration in the charter of Henry III., on the alleged ground that they contained grave and doubtful matters. Whether this reason were honest or evasive we cannot positively ascertain; but, in that reign, as we shall soon see, a house of commons, such as the present, certainly was assembled. "The thirty-ninth article of this charter is that important clause which forbids arbitrary imprisonment and punishment without lawful trial:— Let no freeman be imprisoned or outlawed, or in any manner injured, nor proceeded against by us, otherwise than by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.' In this clause are clearly contained the writ of habeas corpus, and the trial by jury,-the most ef fectual securities against oppression, which the wisdom of man has hitherto been able to devise. It is surely more praiseworthy in these • Simili modo fiat de taillagiis de civitate London. et de aliis civitatibus." Art Cartæ Regis Johannis, § 32. Mag. Chart. § 12. 1 Hen. III. Stats. of the Realm, i. 16. |