Stories selected from the history of England, from the conquest to the revolution. For children

Front matter

% i

*fO

YUDIX COLLECTION

Contents

PA.GE

I. Robert of Normandy 1

II. Red William 10

I. Egbert Of Normandy

William I. 1024.— Died 1087.— Reigned 20 years.

HERE was a king who lived a great while ago, — many hundred years, — whose name was William. He is sometimes called William the First, because no king had been called William before him; and sometimes he is called William the Conqueror, because he came to England with a great

Z ROBERT OF NORMANDY.

army, and won a great battle over another king, whose name was Harold, and who being killed in the battle, William the Conqueror became king in his stead. Now this King William had three sons, called Robert, William, and Henry. Robert was a brave and generous boy, but he was bold, passionate, and unruly.

William had few of Robert's good qualities, and most of the bad ; but he was very cunning, and therefore did not dare to offend his father, as Robert used often to do.

But Henry was a good boy, very obedient to his father, obliging to all his friends, and so very attentive to his learning, that he was called, by all who knew him, Beau Clerc — which is French for Good Scholar.

Now I shall tell you how Robert's bad temper got him into a great scrape, and was very near making him commit a dreadful crime.

It happened that the three young princes, Robert, William, and Henry, were one day amusing themselves in the court-yard of the castle which belonged to their father, and amongst other foolish romping plays, (which are always bad, because they make boys angry with one another,) William and Henry threw a great can of water over Robert's head, which quite drenched him, and spoiled all his fine clothes ; upon which this passionate

A 2

ROBERT OF NORMANDY.

Robert, who ought to have been wiser, because he was by this time grown to be quite a man, and was the eldest of all, snatched up a sword, and was going to strike his brothers in his fury.

But their father, hearing the noise, came to put an end to the quarrel ; and seeing that Robert was so much in fault, he scolded him very severely.

But Robert, instead of asking pardon, and being sorry for his offence, only grew more angry; and pretending that his father had been partial to his two younger brothers, he ran away in the night in a fit of passion^ and, young as he was, had the wickedness to endeavour to make his father's subjects rebel against him ; and he wandered about the country with some other wild young men like himself, trying to make riots and confusion.

And it was while he was playing these wicked pranks that he had like to have committed the most dreadful crime that anybody can ever be guilty of, which is, killing his own father. This is so horrible a crime, that Robert, violent as he was, could never have thought of doing it on purpose; but his conduct was so foolish, that he was near doing it by mistake.

In those days all princes and gentlemen wore armour; that is, plates of brass or iron over their clothes, and iron or brass caps or helmets over their heads and faces ; and these things they wore to guard themselves from being wounded by arrows which their enemies might shoot at them.

When men were covered up in this armour, and their faces hidden by their helmets, you could not know one man from another; and it happened that, as the King was riding in armour through the part of the country where Robert was, Robert came and attacked him.

He did not know it was the King, because of his armour; and as Robert was in armour also, the King did not know him; and so they fought for a great while, till at last Robert, who was young and strong, knocked down his poor old father; and then, just as he was going to stab him with

ROBERT OVERTHROWS AND RECOGNISES HIS FATHER, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

his sword, the old King's helmet fell off, and Robert saw his father s face.

You may judge how shocked and surprised he was ; for bad as his conduct had been, there never could be a son so wicked as to wish to kill his father: so Robert fell on his knees, and thanked God that he had been saved from this crime ; and he begged his father's pardon, and mounted him upon his own horse, for the King's had been killed in the fight.

This shows how dangerous it is to give way to bad temper ; for Robert, by doing so, was very near being led into a horrible, horrible crime, of which he had no intention : if he had killed his father, neither God nor man would ever have forgiven him, and he would been miserable for ever and ever.

As it was, he suffered very severely for his faults ; for though he was the eldest son, King William at his death left his kingdom to his younger sons, who were both kings of England in their turn; and Robert, though he tried every means to become king, never could succeed : so he remained only Duke of Normandy, whence he is called Robert of Normandy.

At last this poor Robert, who, but for his violent temper, would have been a good prince, and much beloved, was confined in prison for the last twenty-eight years of his life, because, if he had been let loose, he would have quarrelled with his brothers,

ROBERT OF NORMANDY.

and done all kinds of violence and mischief.

So you see how wicked and how foolish it is to be cross, and passionate, and ill-tempered.

II. Red William

William II. born 1057.— Died 1100.— Reigned 12 years.

OW I'll tell you a story about

another King William.

He also had two names : he was

jj called William the Second, because

ffr; he was the second king of that name ;

& and he was also called William

Rufus, or Red William, because his hair

was red — Rufus being a Latin word for

Red.

This Red William is the same whom I mentioned to you before ; he was the second son of King William the Conqueror, and brother of Robert and Henry.

I told you that he was as violent as Robert, but he was cunning and sly ; so that people did not find out his temper as easily as they did Robert's.

I cannot tell you all his history, that would be too long, and you will read it by-and-by yourself, when you have learned to read books of history ; I shall only tell you of his death, which happened in a strange manner.

King William the Conqueror was very fond of hunting ; so very fond, that he never cared what harm he did to other people in riding over their lands, or even in taking their lands away from them altogether, in order to make forests, or places where wild beasts are kept for the purpose of being hunted ; and Red William was, in this respect, exactly like his father.

This was very unjust and cruel of both of them, and Red William suffered dearly for it, as you shall hear.

For one day, as he was hunting in the New Forest, which had been made by turning many poor people out of their houses, a gentleman called Walter Tyrrell, who was hunting with him, shot an arrow at a deer that was running by.

The arrow flew with great violence; but before it could reach the deer, it happened to strike against the bough of a tree, so it

<aTW

KIM. WILLIAM II. SHOT IN THE NEW FOREST BY TYRREL.

slanted off another way, and pierced the heart of Red William, who happened unluckily to be at that moment passing under the tree, and who immediately fell dead on the spot.

The moment Walter Tyrrell saw what he had done, he was, as you may think, horribly frightened, and without saying one word of what had happened, he hastened to make his escape out of the forest. He crossed the river Avon, near the town of Ringwood, at a spot which the country people still call Tyrrell's Ford, and he rode to the sea-side, where he got into a boat, and sailed away for France.

But Red William was so hated on account of his injustice and cruelty, that no one was sorry for the accident, and the dead body lay for some time unnoticed in the forest; and it was afterwards found, and brought to a church to be buried, by some of the poor country people whom he had treated so badly while he was alive.

A stone has been put up in the New Forest, on the spot where the tree grew under which the King was killed. If ever we go into Hampshire, I shall take you to see this stone ; for it is a great pleasure to visit the very spot where any remarkable event has happened.

III

Henry I. born 1068. — Died 1135. — Reigned 35 years,

* ^HERE have been no less than |PvJ|| ^^ eight Kings of England of the

name of Henry.

I shall tell you stories about each of them in his turn ; but now I shall tell you that the first king of this name had a son called William : who was, as you may suppose, a great favourite with his father, for he had no other son. So it was expected that Prince William would be king when his father should die; but he died before his father, when he was only eighteen years old, in a very dismal manner.

He was coming with the King, his father, from France to England, and if he had sailed in the same ship with the King, he would have arrived safe, as the King did ; but the Prince delayed, and was not ready to go with his father, as he ought to have been, and so he sailed in another ship a little after the King.

Now the captain and sailors of this ship were all drunken and riotous, and took so little care about steering the ship, that she drove against a rock that stood out in the sea, and was immediately broken almost in pieces, and quite filled with water.

Then all the poor souls that were on

8HIPWKKCK mK THE CHILDREN <>!' HENRY I.

board began to try to save themselves ; and the Prince and some others got into a little boat that belonged to the ship, and were escaping to the land, when William heard the voice of his sister who was left behind in the wreck, crying and lamenting at the prospect of being drowned.

As William was very good-natured and generous, and loved his sister, he would not think of saving himself while she was drowning : and so he desired the men to row the boat back again to the ship, to try to save his sister ; but when he approached the ship, instead of being able to save her, he and all the rest were lost.

For when the little boat came near enough, all the poor miserable creatures who were clinging to the ship, in hopes to save each his own life, jumped altogether into the boat, which immediately sunk under so great a weight, and the poor young Prince and his sister, and every soul, perished ; except only one man. This man was a butcher, who did not jump into the boat, but clung to the mast of the ship ; and was saved by some fishermen next morning, who, as they went out to fish, saw the butcher on the wreck of the ship, and went to save him.

Though the captain of this ship was the person who was most in fault for this sad accident, I must tell you something that will make you sorry for him.

He, like the butcher, had saved himself by clinging to the mast of the ship ; but when the butcher told him that Prince William was drowned, the poor captain was so shocked, that he said he would not live after having caused the Prince's death, and so he let go his hold of the mast, and sank to the bottom of the sea, and was drowned with his young master.

The poor old King, who was very fond of his son, when he heard of his death, was so sorry, — so sorry that he fainted away, and never was seen to smile again during the rest of his life, though he lived as long as fifteen years.

b2

IV. Stephen

Stephen, born 1105. — Died 1154. — Reigned 18 years.

TOLD you how poor Prince William, King Hjenry's son, was drowned, with his sister and a great many other people, and how very sorry the poor old King was ; and well he might, for besides that William was a very

fine youth, the King had, as I told you, no

other son.

But he had one other daughter, and

having lost his other children in so lament-

able a way, he grew doubly fond of her ; and when he was dying he ordered that Matjlda, for that was his daughter's name, should be Queen of England ; and the lords and bishops and all the people accepted Matilda for their Queen, and took an oath to be faithful and obedient to her.

But there was a cousin of Matilda's whose name was Stephen, who was a great soldier, very brave, and very wicked ; and although he had sworn like all the rest to have Matilda for Queen, no sooner was the old King dead, than Stephen, wickedly breaking his oath, collected an army, and proclaimed himself King.

Then there began long and bloody wars ; for most of the lords, bishops, and people, remembered the oath they had taken, and were true to Matilda; and so an army was raised for her which fought with the army of Stephen; and sometimes Matilda's army won the battle, and sometimes Stephen's.

But at last Stephen succeeded in driving Matilda out of England, and in getting possession of the kingdom ; but this did not last long, for Stephen was a very unjust king, and oppressed the people, and they all rose against him, and invited Matilda to come back to England, and to bring her little son, who was called Henry, after the old King his grandfather.

So she and little Henry came to England, and a great army was raised for them, and it fought Stephen's army several times, and at last took Stephen himself prisoner ; and he was then thrown into a prison, where he was kept a whole year, and during that time Matilda was Queen of England.

But Stephen getting out of prison, the wars began again; and there were a dreadful number of people killed, and many a poor father and mother lost their children in the bloody battles on both sides.

So you see what sad misfortunes were occasioned by Stephen's wickedness in breaking his promise ; but you shall hear how Stephen himself, by the justice of Heaven, suffered the same misfortunes that he caused to others.

For his chief object was that his own son, who was called Eustace, should be King of England after him, and this was the chief reason of his wicked conduct; but, as if to punish him for his crime, just as he had again got quiet possession of the kingdom, this very son Eustace died.

And Stephen himself died soon after ; and then young Henry became King, to the great joy of every body; and he was one of the bravest, the wisest, and the best kings that ever reigned in England.

V. Fair Rosamond

Henry II. born 1133. — Died 1189. — Reigned 34 years.

N C E on a time there was a beautiful young lady of the name of Rosamond Clifford, so extremely beautiful, that she was commonly called Fair Rosamond- It happened that one day King j^ Henry — the son of Matilda, and second king of England of that name — saw this young lady, and fell in love with her ; and she, as the King was young and handsome, fell also in love with him.

So the King ordered a beautiful bower to be made near a town called Woodstock, in which Fair Rosamond was to live.

This bower was one of the most delightful places that ever was heard of: it was a nice little cottage, in a delicious garden, quite overgrown with sweetbriars and honeysuckles; and the groves and garden were full of singing birds, and the air was quite sweet with the smell of flowers.

But the chief wonder of the bower was, that, from without, no one could see it, it was so completely buried in the woods. The trees grew so thick about it, that they formed a kind of labyrinth or maze, through which no one could find the way, unless by following a clue or thread ; which winded along through a great, great many passages, from the outward entrance into the centre of the bower ; and this clue was very fine silk thread, so fine, that unless persons were told of it they would never be able to see it.

So whenever the King could get away from court, he used to go alone to the bower to visit Fair Rosamond, and by the clue he used to find his way in; but nobody else except himself ever passed in or out; except one servant, who used to go out at night to fetch bread, and wine, and meat, for the use of Fair Rosamond.

Now I will tell you why this curious bower and labyrinth were made.

There was a Queen at that time in

England, called Ellinor, who was jealous and cruel ; and the king was afraid that if she knew about Fair Rosamond she would put her to death, and therefore he took all this care to hide her in Woodstock Bower.

It was very wrong of the King to attempt to deceive the Queen in this manner, and it was very wicked in Rosamond to join him in doing so; and accordingly a great misfortune was the consequence of this great fault.

Queen Ellinor could not but observe that the King often went away from court, and nobody knew whither he was gone, and every one wondered where he could be.

So the Queen watched him very closely, and, after long watching, she found that he always went towards Woodstock, but what became of him after he got to Woodstock she could never discover; for no one could either see the bower, or find his way through the labyrinth.

And so perhaps it never would have been discovered, but that Queen Ellinor happened to meet the servant who used to buy meat, and bread, and wine, for the use of Fair Rosamond; and from him she found out the secret of the labyrinth, and learned to make her way with the assistance of the clue.

Having thus found the secret, Queen Ellinor watched her opportunity; and when she knew that the King was at the court, and that Fair Rosamond must be alone in the bower, she went to the labyrinth, with a dagger and a cup of poison, and laying hold of the clue, she found her way to the very centre of the bower where Fair Rosamond was sitting.

You may judge of the surprise of poor Rosamond, when she saw the Queen come in with a furious look, with a dagger in one hand, and the cup of poison in the other ; but I cannot explain to you her horror when the cruel Queen told her that she was come to kill her, and that all the indulgence she could have was a choice, whether to die by being stabbed by the dagger, or by drinking the cup of poison.

The poor, poor creature went upon

FAIR ROSAMOND COMPELLED TO DRINK POISON BY QUEEN ELEANOR.

her knees to the Queen, and wept and prayed for mercy; but the Queen continued cruel and hard-hearted : and at last the miserable Rosamond was forced to drink off the poison, and soon after died in great agony.

But in the meanwhile the Queen got away out of the labyrinth, and nobody knew that she had been there: but when the King next came to visit the bower, he was surprised and shocked to find his dear Rosamond dead; and though he did not know how her death was caused, he could not but feel that his own folly and wickedness, in keeping her hid in this bower, was the cause of her death, and he was, ever after, very much grieved for her loss.

VI. Cceur De Lion

Richard L born 1157. — Died 1199. — Reigned 9 years.

|HERE was once a king of England, who was one of the *b bravest men in the world, and was called, from his great generosity and courage, Cceur de Lion, which means Heart of Lion ; for the Lion is supposed to be the most courageous and generous of all animals.

It happened that in King Richard's time, a people who were called Infidels (or Unbelievers, because they did not believe in our Saviour,) obtained possession of a Holy City called Jerusalem, about which you will read in the Bible, when you are old enough to read the Bible ; and all the Christians in England, France, and Germany resolved to join together, and form a great army to attack these Infidels, and drive them out of the Holy City of Jerusalem, which was the chief city of the Holy Land.

Of all the kings who went to the Crusade — so this war was called — none was more powerful, brave, or magnificent, than Cceur de Lion; and his army was one of the finest that ever was seen; and when he arrived at the Holy Land, where the Holy City was, he attacked the Infidels,

34 CGEUR DE LION.

and conquered them in a great many glorious battles, and the fame of Cceur de Lion spread far and wide throughout all Europe.

But it happened before this war was quite ended, that it became necessary for King Richard to return to England, to do some business for the good of the people, which could not be done without him ; so he left his army in the Holy Land, and began his journey back to England with only a few servants or followers.

But as he was passing through a country called Austria, the Duke or Prince of that country, who was a cruel and treacherous tyrant, seized upon King Richard, and put him into a prison.

Nothing could be so shocking as this Duke of Austria's conduct, because the King was not only his friend, but, even if he had not been his friend, was entitled to every respect and protection, because he was a stranger in that country; and the king of every country is bound to protect all strangers travelling through it, as long as they behave themselves properly, and obey the laws.

But the Duke of Austria was a savage, who loved nothing but money, and he seized King Richard in hopes that the people of England would give a great sum of money for his release.

It is said that this vile Duke at first hid the King in a dark dungeon, in a castle

c 2 which was built in the midst of a great forest, and that no one knew what was become of him.

But Richard had a faithful page, who loved him exceedingly, and this page wandered through all Germany to find out the place where his master was confined ; and whenever he came to a castle where he thought the King might be, he began to sing a song under the windows of the castle. And he always sang the same song, which was one that the King himself used to sing, and the page knew that if the King should hear this song, he would know who sang it, and would, perhaps, make himself known by singing the same song in return.

Many was the castle, and many the

BLOXDEL BEFORE THE PRISON OF RICHARD CCBUH DK I. ion tower, under the walls of which the faithful page sang his song : but he never heard any voice in answer, till at last, by good fortune, he arrived at the very castle where the King was confined.

Then he had no sooner sung the first verse of his song but Cgeur de Lion heard him, and immediately knew who it was that sang it, and just as the page expected, he answered by singing the second verse of the song, and so the page knew that he had at last found where his master was confined.

Now as soon as it was known that the Duke of Austria had been so treacherous, all the other kings and princes in Europe endeavoured to procure Richard's release;

but all in vain: for the Duke would not give him his liberty without a large ransom, that is, a great sum of money.

So when the people of England heard this, they immediately collected their jewels and money, and made up the great sum which the Duke demanded, and sent it over to him, so that he had no longer any excuse for keeping Cceur de Lion : he accordingly let him go.

The moment the King was at liberty, he, with his faithful page and other attendants, mounted their horses and galloped away, and travelled day and night, without stopping, on the road to England.

And well it was that he did so : for the treacherous Duke had no sooner seen him

CGEUR DE LION. 39

depart, but he thought that he might have got a larger sum if he had kept him longer, and he immediately sent soldiers to ride after Cceur de Lion and bring him back as a prisoner again.

These soldiers also rode day and night, and travelled quite as fast as the King, but as he had a day the start of them, they never could overtake him : and at last after a journey of a great many days and nights, the King arrived at the sea-side, and got into a ship, and was just sailing away for England at the very moment that the soldiers arrived to stop him.

But the King was already at sea, and out of their reach, and the soldiers got nothing by their journey but the trouble

CCEUR DE LION.

and disgrace ; for every body hated the Duke's treachery, and were very glad that his soldiers had failed in overtaking the King ; who landed safely in England, and was received by all the people with the greatest joy, and they seemed to love Cceur de Lion the better for all the toils and misfortunes he had suffered.

VII. Arthur

John, born 1166. — Died 1216. — Reigned 17 years.

ip' SHALL now tell you the story of Prince Arthur, which is a very melancholy one. m|^# Arthur was the nephew of Rifty chard Cgeur de Lion, and on the death of his uncle should have been king; but, unfortunately for him, he had another uncle called John, a very wicked, cruel man, who wanted to be king himself, and he made himself king accordingly — so, getting possession of poor young Arthur, he immediately shut him up in a prison, a great, lonely tower, which was the most dismal place that can be imagined. The keeper of this prison was called Hubert, a bad man, whom King John employed in this business, because he promised him to murder the poor Prince ; for John was afraid lest the people should insist on making his little nephew king.

Arthur had not been long in this tower when the King sent an order to Hubert to put him to death; — but it seems Hubert was not quite so wicked as the King thought him to be, and he could' not bring himself to commit a murder on an innocent young creature like Arthur.

But as he was nevertheless willing to assist John, so far as to prevent Arthur's ever being king, he thought that if, instead of killing him, he was to put out the poor boy's eyes, it would prevent his ever being king just as well as if he killed him : this was, indeed, a very cruel design on the part of Hubert, but it was not quite so bad as killing him.

But though Hubert had resolved to blind the poor Prince, he was not so savage as to think of doing it with his own hands ; so he hired two ruffians to commit this crime, and he gave them two irons, which they were to make red-hot in the fire, and then to thrust them into the eyes of the unhappy little boy.

When Hubert brought these two ruffians into Arthur's presence, the Prince was terrified at their wicked looks, at the irons which they held in their hands, and at the fire which was brought into the room in a brazen pan for the purpose of heating the irons ; but when he heard what their design was, he burst into tears, and fell on his knees to Hubert, and kissed his hands and his feet, and wept so bitterly, and prayed so earnestly, that Hubert's heart was moved with pity.