A New History of England and Great Britain ... Eleventh edition

Preface

This book is a new edition of my " History of the British Empire ; " but so many changes have been made in it, and so many additions to it, that it is practically a new book. It consists of a continuous narrative of the chief events of each reign in the history of England and Great Britain, along with a number of notes and illustrative remarks which throw side-lights on the most important events and characters in the history of the country. The following are believed to be the specifically new features in this book : — (i) At the beginniDg of each reign a clear statement is made as to who each succeeding sovereign was, his relation tp the preceding sovereign, his children, and his other relatives. (ii) Clear genealogies are given of each House. (iii) The chief clauses in Treaties and Acts of Parliament are briefly and clearly set out.

(iv) A paragraph is given to the Great Men of each reign. (v) The Social Facts connected with each period are briefly given. (vi) The Literature of, and the state of the Language at, the period are shortly described. (vii) A Short Chronology of each reign is given at the end of it, so that the student may get it up with ease, and make himself quite sure of the main events. (viii) A brief view is presented of Important Contemporary Events in other countries. (ix) Short Lives of Eminent Persons have been appended to the book. (x) Short definitions, with examples, have been given ot the Terms employed in English History. With this a few derivations have been given. (xi) The Chronological System of Mr. David Nasmith, Q.C., has been employed for each century. This system is so ingenious, and yet so simple, that it deserves a VI

PREFACE.

longer description. It is based on the ordered arrangement in space of each decade. The decade appears thus Thus : (a) The O's always appear in the upper "bar ; (b) the l's on the upper left-hand corner ; (c) the 9's in the lowest right-hand corner ; (d) the 5's in the middle ; and so on. After a little practice with this table, the difficulty is not to remember, but to forget. The only effort of memory required is to remember in what space you have seen a particular statement ; and this is just as easy as to remember where a street or square is. It is hoped that all these arrangements will make it easier for the student to get up and to remember the details of History, as well as the main events, which of themselves keep a firm hold of the mind. The paragraphs in small type will be of use to those who are preparing for examinations ; as they contain answers to most of the questions set in History Papers.

J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN. 1190 1191 1192 1193 Richard takes Acre. Richard captured by the Duke of Austria and sold to the Emperor, Henry vr. Corporation of London first legally recognised. 119. 1195 1196 Richard ransomed for 150,000 marks. He returns to England for two months. 1197 1198 1199 Richard builds " Saucy Castle" (Chateau Gaillard) oil the Seine — near Kouen. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, refuses to find money for a foreign war Death of Richard. JOHN. Archbishop Hubert Chancellor. CONTENTS. TA3E Introductory, ....... 1

Book I

— England and Great Britain before the Conquest. CHAP. I. The Romans settled in Britain, .... 9 II. The English in Britain, ..... 15 III. Wessex and the Danes, ..... 24 IT. The Empire of Britain and the Danish Conquest, 32 V. The Danish Kings, .... 38 VI. The Confessor and the Godwins, . . .41 England in Saxon Times, ..... 47

Book II

— The Norman Kings. I. William the First, ...... 55 II. William the Second, ..... 66 III. Henry the First, ...... 75 IV. Stephen and his Enemy Matilda, .... 83 England under Norman Rule, .... 90

Book III

— The Earlier Angevin Kings (Plantagenets). I. Henry the Second, ..... 95 II. Richard the First (of Aquitaine), . . . . 110 in. John, ....... 118 IV. Henry the Third (of Winchester), . .130 England under Angevin Rule, .... 145

Book IV

— The Later Angevin Kings (Plantagenets). I. Edward the First (of Westminster), . . . 151 II. Edward the Second (of Carnarvon), . . . 167 III. Edward the Third (of Windsor), .... 178 IV. Richard the Second (of Bordeaux), . . . 198 England in the Fourteenth Century, . . . 211 CONTENTS.

Book V

— York and Lancaster Kings. CHAP. PAGE I. Henry the Fourth (of Bolingbroke), . . .219 II. Henry the Fifth (of Monmouth), .... 229 III. Henry the Sixth (of Windsor), .... 240 IV. Edward the Fourth (of York), .... 255 V. Edward the Fifth of Westminster), . . .265 VI. Richard the Third (of Gloucester), . . .270

Book VI

— The House of Tudor. I. Henry the Seventh (Henry Tudor of Richmond), . 277 England in the Fifteenth Century, . . .290 II. Henry the Eighth, ..... 295 III. Edward the Sixth, ..... 314 IV. Mary, 324 V. Elizabeth, ....... 336 England in the Sixteenth Century, . . . 355

Book VII

— The House of Stuart and the Commonwealth. I. James the First, ...... 365 II. Charles the First, ...... 3S5 III. The Commonwealth, ..... 412 IV. Charles the Second, ..... 428 V. James the Second, ..... 447 VI. William and Mary, ..... 460 VII. Anne, ....... 478 England in the Seventeenth Century, . . . 495

Book VIII

— The House of Hanover or Brunswick. I. George the First, ...... 505 II. George the Second, ..... 516 III. George the Third, ..... 532 Great Britain in the Eighteenth Century, . . 564 IV. George the Fourth, . . . . . 570 V. William the Fourth, .... 579 VI. Victoria (Part I.), . ..... 589 VII. Victoria (Part II), ..... 606 Great Britain in the Nineteenth Century, . . 619 Steps in the Growth of the English Constitution, . 631 Short Lives of Eminent Persons in the History of England and Great Britain, .... 641 Terms employed in English History, . . . 659 Index, ........ A NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GEEAT BRITAIN INTRODUCTORY 1. Position. — The British Empire, which now stretches over the whole globe on which we live, has its chief seat in the two islands of Great Britain and Ireland. These two islands lie off the coast of Europe, between the 49th and the 61st degrees of north latitude, with the long unbroken expanse of the stormy Atlantic to the west of them.

It is to this position on the Atlantic that they owe their mild and healthy climate. 'While Labrador, which lies in exactly the same latitude, has a winter of nine months, — a winter fit only for seals and white bears, with a thermometer almost always below zero, — these islands enjoy a climate which enables corn and fruit to ripen, and in which — as Charles II. used to say — a man may be out of doors a larger number of hours than in any other country in Europe. The country is one of the most beautiful in the world. The larger half of England is like one wide rich garden, — "Bright breadth of plain, blue-veined by many a stream, Umbrageous hills, sweet glades, and forests fair." To this position, also, it is that these islands owe their enormous wealth and their ever growing trade. In the times of the Roman Empire, the trade of the world lay in and around the Mediterranean ; but in the present century, Britain1 sends her ships to every climate and to every land ; and the Mediterranean of to-day is the Atlantic Ocean.

So thickly do ships and steam-vessels come and go upon this ocean, that the great American physical geographer, Maury, recommended that lines should be drawn for vessels going and re- 1 The word Britain is said to come from the Celtic word Brit, " painted," because the warriors stained their chests with blue woad before going into battle. INTRODUCTORY turning, and that thus there should be " Ocean Lanes " for the regular journeys of ships. But, though Britain carries on a vaster trade with the New World than with any other country, not the less is her face turned to the continent of Europe, with every large town on which she has connection either by ship, or by rail, or by telegraph ; and all for the purposes of a commerce which grows with the rising of every sun. The sun never sets and never rises on the British dominions ; the roll of the British drum calls the British soldier to duty in the mornings of every longitude, and makes a belt of sound around the planet ; and it would be perfectly practicable to put round the earth a girdle of telegraphic wire, the ends of which should rest only upon land that belongs to the Queen of the British Empire.

(i) The first step to the wealth and power of Great Britain was the discovery of coal and iron about 150 years ago ; a discovery which made this island the workshop of the world. (ii) The greater acquisitions of land began also about 150 years ago with the con quest of North America and of India from the French, when the population of England was only about 5,000,000. 2. The Three Britains. — The larger of the two islands in which we live is called Great Britain (Britannia Magna). It received this name to distinguish it from another home of the British race which is now called Brittany (Britannia Minor, or, in French, Bretagne). In Brittany there still live more than a million persons of that family of the great Celtic race which is called British ; and these persons speak a dialect1 of that language which — in different forms and under different names — is found in Ireland, in Wales, in the Isle of Man, and in the Highlands of Scotland.2 These two Britains have many points in common.

Both had the same Druidical religion ; both have the same traditions about King Arthur, and his coming again to rule their race ; both have their Cornivall (in Brittany it is Cor nouailles), where the same cruel and dastardly trade of wrecking was pursued ; and both have their castle of St. Michael's Mount, on each of which Christianity has had its seat since the earliest ages. But these two Britains are now almost overshadowed by the world-wide fame of the Greater Britain, which, in every climate and on every 1 A dialect is a species, a language is a genus ; or we may say : A language is a big dialect, aud a dialect is a litUe language. 2 In Ireland it is called Erse ; in Wales. Eymric; in the Isle of Man, Manx : in Scotland. Gaelic. It existed also in Cornwall, which used to be called West Wales ; but it died out about eighty years ago in the person of an old lady called Mary Penrumn.

INTRODUCTORY 3 continent, to the number of about one hundred million voices, speaks the tongue that is known in all parts of the world as English. (i) Before the coming of the Celts into Great Britain, this island was thinly inhabited by a race of stunted savages, whose tools and weapons were of flint, wood, or bone ; who dressed in skins, painted their bodies with red ochre and blue woad juice, and who lived by hunting. This was in the time when— as now in Labrador— glaciers filled the upper parts of the river-valleys, and there roamed in the plains and moors wild oxen, elks, wild horses, cave-lions, cave-bears, hyenas. and in the lowland swamps lived river-horses, elephants, and rhinoceroses. (ii) The Celts are an Aryan Race who came from the Highlands of Central Asia— probably from the lofty table-land called "High Pamir."

Celtic languages are still spoken by the Welsh, Irish, Scotch Gaels, and Bretons ; and most of the names of European rivers, mountains, etc., are Celtic. (a) The ar in Aryan is said to be the same syllable as the ar in arable. Hence Aryan would mean the ploughing race. (bl PaMin lies to the north-west of the Karakornm Mountains and north-east of Hindoo Koosh. (iii) The next Aryan rare that spread over Europe were the Teutons ; and to this family belong the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Dutch, Flemings, Germans, Scotch, and English. (iv) The Asiatic races which settled in Europe that are not Aryans are the Basques (of the north of Spain), the Finns, the Lapps ; and, at a later time, Magyars (in Hungary) and the Ottoman Turks. All these are Turanians— that is, they come from the Lowland of Turan, east of the Sea of Aral. 3.

The Three Englands. — And, just as there are three Britains, so there are also three Englands. Old England, under the name of Angeln,1 still exists in that part of Schleswig from which our fore fathers came ; and in that Angeln is still spoken a speech which, in its main features, is really the same as that which passes from mouth to mouth in these two islands. Our forefathers, when in the fifth century they left their native heaths and farms to obtain a settlement in Britain, brought with them the customs and the laws and the name of English and England. Much later on, in the troubled and confused times of Charles I., a number of stern and resolute Englishmen threw off the religious and political oppression under which they groaned, and left the shores of their mother country to found a New England,2 which still grows in enterprise, in wealth, and in manly virtues, on the western shores of the stormy Atlantic. 1 The change of pronunciation of the broad a, which passes into a narrow a, and then into e, may be seen in the three ways of pronouncing Pall Mall.

In Scotland it is sounded as in ball ; in middle England, as in bal in balcony; in London and the South, as in fell. 2 New England comprises six States, — Maine. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island. It contains 65,000 square miles ; that Is. about one-eighth larger than England. INTRODUCTORY (i) "In the fifth century after the birth of Christ, the one country which bore the name of England was what we now call Schleswig, a district in the heart of the peninsula (of Jutland) which parts the Baltic from the Northern seas."— Green. (ii) There is in Schleswig a small district which keeps the name of Angeln to this day. 4. First Glimpse. — The first faint note given by history of the existence of these islands is to be found in the story that the Scilly Isles 1 and Cornwall were frequently visited by sailors from Tyre and Sidon — two famous towns in a country called Phœnicia.2 They came here to buy tin, a metal which was then deemed to be as valuable as gold ; for, mixed with copper, it formed bronze, one of the hardest of composite metals.

But the first distinct mention of Great Britain in trustworthy history is to be found in a book called the "Commentaries of Cæsar." The writer of the book, the great Julius Cæsar, states, that, about 60 B.C., Divitiacus, a king of Northern Gaul,3 looked upon this island as part of his dominions. At that time there were in the island two kinds of Britons. One — the native — was a half-naked savage, with skins of wild beasts on his shoulders, his body painted blue to frighten his enemies, using stone hatchets and arrow-heads of flint, growing no corn, living on milk and flesh, and leading a miserable life in the heart of dense forests and dreary marshes. The other kind, who had come from the neighbouring countries of Gaul and Belgium,4 inhabited chiefly the country along the southern coast, and were hard-working farmers and traders.

They had orderly governments ; they lived in comfortable circular houses ; they wore dresses of good black broadcloth reaching to their feet ; and the richer class walked about with gold-headed staves in their hands. Both these kinds of Britons were of the same race — the Celtic ; and both had the same religion. 5. The Religion of the Celts. — Their religion was called JJruidism. Their priests were the chief advisers of the British, and the educators of their youth ; they were the poets and the prophets of their tribes. They venerated the wren, the hare, the oak,5 and especially the mistletoe ; they performed their rites in the open air, in sacred groves, or on the tops of high hills, or in the midst of far- 1 These islands were called the Cassite)Hdes~Tin Islands. 2 On the east coast of the Mediterrar.oan. 3 Gaul=France. 4 Respectively called Gallia and Ottilia Belgica by the Romans.

B The word Druid is said to come from the Celtic word dru, which in Greek appears as dn«=oak. B.C. 55.] INTRODUCTORY 5 stretching plains. It is said that they worshipped the Sun — a worship which is found both in the Old and in the New World, which was practised in Peru and in Persia, in Syria x and in Greece, in Hindustan and on the western shores of the Pacific. They believed in the immortality of the soul, and they offered human sacrifices. Criminals and captives, and even young children, were burnt alive in vast wicker cages, while the British troops beat their drums, and the Druid priests chanted fierce hymns of thanksgiving and praise to their hideous and bloodthirsty gods. 6. First Invasion. Julius Cæsar.— This great Roman general and writer had, for some years before B.C. 55, been engaged in sub duing the Gauls to the Roman yoke.

The Gauls had received aid from the Britons of the coast. These Britons, it must not be for gotten, lived in towns, tilled the ground, had good roads, worked in metals, made pottery, and had merchant fleets which traded with France and Spain. They could hardly, therefore, be called barbarians or uncivilised. Cæsar (then proconsul2), led by stories about the pearls and the other wealth of Britain, resolved to annex it to the Roman Empire ; but his first invasion was made simply for the pur pose of reconnoitring. At midnight on the 25th of August, 55 B.C., he set sail from the neighbourhood of Boulogne with two pimt In. legions in eighty high-prowed ships. Next day the fleet T"lon»f Julius put into Dover Bay ; but the white cliffs bristled with cæsar armed men, and the order was given to make for another BC- 60 part of the coast.

The fleet accordingly stood off, and at length cast anchor opposite the open beach of Deal. 7. First Landing of the Romans. — Here the Romans were again confronted by the Britons, with their scythed chariots drawn by swift and hardy ponies, their darts, and swords, and spears ; and the Roman soldiers, finding it difficult to land, hesitated for some time in the presence of the swarms of a courageous enemy. At last the standard-bearer of the Tenth Legion, a fearless soldier and a personal favourite of Cæsar, jumped into the sea with his silver eagle, shouting : " Follow me, men of the Tenth, unless you wish to see l The sun in Syria was known by the name Baal, which in Greek appears as X-poll-o. 2 The consuls were the two chief magistrates of Rome : a proconsul was an officer who acted in the place of the consul.

INTRODUCTORY your eagle in the hands of the enemy ! " This would have been a disgrace never to be forgotten ; and the legionaries1 jumped into the water, fought their way to the shore, and drove back the British troops. 8. Second Invasion.— In about three weeks Cæsar left the island ; but he returned in May of next year — B.C. 54 — with a fleet of 800 ships, and an army of 25,000 foot and 2000 horse and several elephants. The British forces were commanded by Caswallon (or as the name stands in its Latin dress Cassivellaunus) ; but the hardy little chariot-horses were dismayed and demoralised by the sight and second insmell of the elephants, could not be got to charge, and vasion of gg^ jn terrible disorder, cutting their own men to pieces Julius . > & c Cæsar with their revolving scythes. Cæsar imposed a tribute Ea Mand received hostages for the due payment of it ;2 and, re-embarking for Gaul never returned to the island. • Common soldiers of the legion, a body which consisted of from 4.100 to 6000 men 2 Young persons given as pledges of good conduct and peace.

Book I. England And Great Britain Before The Conquest Chapter I, The

ROMANS SETTLED IN BRITAIN. 1. The First Campaign.— For nearly a century Rome left Britain unmolested. But, in the year 43, the Emperor Claudius sent a large army of about 40,000 men to seize the island, ~~" under the command of Aulus Plautlus and Vespasian. (This Vespasian was the great general who afterwards took Jerusalem, levelled it with the ground, and sowed it with salt, and who himself was afterwards chosen Emperor.) Claudius himself followed, remained in the island sixteen days, went back to Rome, proclaimed a victory for himself, and took the surname of Brltannicus, as if he had subdued the whole island. After seven years of hard fighting, the leader of the Britons, Caradoc (in its Latin form, Caractacus1) was defeated, and sent in chains to Rome. When led captive through the splendid streets of the capital of the world, he expressed his astonishment that the possessors of wealth so vast should envy him his thatched cottage in Britain ; and the Emperor, struck by his intelligence, and his free and noble bearing, spared him his life. 2.

The slaughter of the Druids. — In the year 58, Suetonius Paulinus was appointed governor of Britain. He determined, as a root-and-branch stroke of policy, to put the Druids to death, and to stamp out, if possible, their religion and their influence. He accordingly led an army, by forced marches, to the sacred isle of Mona, which is now called Anglesea. Here he was met by a British army, supported on each side by Druids in their white robes, and by priestesses with streaming hair and torches Dev»it» in their hands, chanting hymns, shrieking fierce defiances, Mona and rushing wildly to and fro. But Suetonius and his 61. legionaries fell upon them, and put to death man and woman, soldier, priest, and priestess without mercy. 1 He was the chieftain of the BHuret, the tribe which lived in South Wales.

B THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 3. The Revolt of Boadicea. — Meanwhile, however, in the east of the island, a terrible revolt had broken out. Boadicea, queen of the Icenians, remonstrated with womanly vigour against an act of treachery on the part of Catus, the Roman treasurer, who had been left in command. Her husband, Prasutagus, king of the Icenians, a British tribe in Norfolk, had, in the hope of securing the friendship of the Romans, bequeathed one-half of his dominions to them ; but he had no sooner died than they seized upon the whole. The reply of the infamous Catus to the remonstrance of Boadicea was to seize her, bind her, and, in presence of the Roman legionaries, have her scourged with rods like a slave. The Romans also struck and insulted her two daughters. Mad with rage and shame, she roused her countrymen, and towering high in her war-chariot, with her daughters shivering at her feet, told in short and fiery words the terrible story of her wrongs.

One of the tallest of women, she stood with distorted features and flaming eyes, her long yellow hair streaming in the wind, a collar of gold upon her neck, and a long spear in her hand, and the words came quick and fast from her quivering lips ; while the hoarse shouts of the Britons, with the clash and clang of darts and spears and swords upon their bucklers, replied fitly and readily to her eloquent and burning words. One Roman town after another was captured, and man, woman, and child were cut to pieces. The Roman colonies Camulodunum, l Verulamium, 2 and Londinium3 — even then a flourishing place of commerce — were rased to the ground. "Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies ; Perished many a maid and matron, many a valorous legionary ; Fell the colony, city, and citadel— London, Verulam, Camulodune.

Suetonius, on receiving the news, returned with all speed, fell upon the Defeat of army of Boadicea, and defeated her with terrible slaughter. Boadicea with broken hopes and broken heart, with her friends lying dead, and her country in ruins, she drank a phial of poison, fell dead, and thus escaped the triumphal car of the Roman conqueror.4 1 Colchester. 1 St. Albans. 3 London. Camulodunum {Colchester) was the first Roman colony in Britain. • A Roman general who obtained a "triumph" exhibited his captives in a procession, in chariots and triumphal cars. A.D. 78-84.] AGRICOLA 4. Agricola. — The real conqueror of Britain was Julius Agricola, who was its governor from 78 to 84. He was an able statesman, a wise and mild governor ; and under his rule many noble Britons assumed and used the Roman toga,1 the Latin language, and the customs and manners of their conquerors.

His life has been written by his son-in-law, Tacitus, the great Roman historian. To keep off the attacks of the wild North Britons, he drew a line of fortifica tions from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde. This line consisted of banks of earth, with earth-camps at intervals. He carried through with solid success seven campaigns ; and, in the last, overthrew, at Mons Grampius, near Comrie in Perthshire, 30,000 Caledonians under Galgacus, who fell on the field of battle. He also sailed as far north as the Orkneys, and discovered — what had been hitherto quite unknown — that Britain was an island. He made excellent roads, built strong towns, distributed justice, and put an end to the power of the grasping Roman .tax-gatherers,2 until the Emperor Domitian, becoming jealous of his fame, recalled him to Rome in the year 84.

(i) The Romans divided the country into six provinces : (1) Britannia. Prima — all the country south of the Thames and the Bristol ChanneL (2) Flavia Cæsariensls — which included the central counties, the Thames, Severn, Mersey, and Humber being the boundaries. (3) Britannia Secunda — Wales and all the land west of the Severn and Dee. (4) Maxima Cæsariensls — From the Mersey and the Humber to the Tyne and the Wall of Hadrian. (5) Valentia — From the Tyne to the Forth and the Wall of Antoninus (Graham's Dyke). (6) Vespaaiana — the country north of this wall. (But this province was never conquered by the Romans.) (ii) The advantages to the Britons of the Roman occupation were numerous : (1) The Romans gave them a strong and just government. (2) They were the indirect means of introducing Christianity.

(3) They enlarged British commerce. (4) They improved British agriculture ; and Britain was for some time called the "Western Granary." (5) They made magnificent and lasting roads, parts of which still exist. (6) They built splendid towns. Their brickwork was the best and most lasting the world has ever seen. Some of it still exists in as good a state as when it was put up. Bath was the favourite Roman watering-place, and contained numerous temples, palaces, and theatres. In London there was a temple to Apollo, where Westminster Abbey now stands, and one to Diana on the site of St. Paul's. The gown or robe worn only by Roman citizens. Called publicani {publicans). THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 5. The Roman Settlements. — The chief support of the Roman power in Great Britain lay in their settlements or colonies of veteran soldiers.

These colonies were fortified towns ; and the veterans were paid, not with pensions, but with land and privileges. These towns became little centres of order and civilisation. The Roman army in Britain, which generally numbered 30,000 foot and 6000 horse, consisted chiefly of legionaries drafted from distant parts of the Roman Empire ; while a corresponding number of the British youth were sent to these distant countries to keep down revolts and disturbances there.1 These troops were stationed in strong forts and camps, defended by triple lines of earthworks, and were also distributed along the great northern walls. Many patrician 2 Romans also settled in Britain, and the wealthier nobles had country houses (villœ) in different parts of the island, to which they resorted during the summer, and where they ate the oysters and purchased the pure white pearls, the fame of which had reached them even in their Italian homes.

(i) The chief traces left in our language of the Roman occupation are found in six words : (1) Caslra — a camp. This word is found chiefly in three forms : Chester in the west and south, caster in the north and centre, and caster in the Midland counties. (2) Strata (via) — a paved road. This appears in our language as street ; and in names of places in three chief forms : Strat (in Stratford), stret (in Stretton), and streat (in Streatham). All the towns with this prefix stood on the great Roman road from Richborough (near Ramsgate) to Chester. (3) Colonia — a settlement or colony, as in Lincoln. (4) Portus — a harbour, in Bridport, Portsea, etc. (5) Vallum— a. palisaded rampart. This is found in bailey and bailiff. The courts of Norman castles were called the inner and outer baileys. (6) Fossa — a ditch ; found in Fossway, Fosbrooke.