Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been maintained.

Each page of the original book had a side note stating the time span treated on that page. Those side notes have been deleted.

STUDENT'S
HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD VII

BY

SAMUEL R. GARDINER, D.C.L., LL.D.
LATE FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD
ETC.

VOL. I.
B.C. 55—A.D. 1509

NEW IMPRESSION (1915)
REISSUE

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
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1916

All rights reserved

WORKS
BY
SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Accession of James I. to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603-1642. With Maps. 10 vols. crown 8vo. 5s. net each.

A HISTORY OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, 1642-1649. With Maps. 4 vols. crown 8vo. 5s. net each.

A HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE PROTECTORATE, 1649-1656. With Maps. 4 vols. crown 8vo. 5s. net each.

THE LAST YEARS OF THE PROTECTORATE, 1656-1658. By Charles Harding Firth, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. With 3 Plans. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. net.

A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. From the Earliest Times to the Death of King Edward VII.

• Vol. I. B.C. 55-A.D. 1509. With 173 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4s.
• Vol. II. 1509-1689. With 96 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4s.
• Vol. III. 1689-1910. With 112 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 4s.
• ⁂ Complete in One Volume, with 381 Illustrations, crown 8vo. 12s.

PREPARATORY QUESTIONS ON S. R. GARDINER'S STUDENT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By R. Somervell, M.A. Crown 8vo. 1s.

SUMMARY OF ENGLISH HISTORY, based on S. R. Gardiner's 'Outline of English History.' Brought down to the Accession of Edward VII. By W. Reep. Fcp. 8vo. 6d.

A SCHOOL ATLAS OF ENGLISH HISTORY. Edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner, D.C.L., LL.D. With 66 Coloured Maps and 22 Plans of Battles and Sieges. Fcp. 4to. 5s.

LONGMANS' ELEMENTARY HISTORICAL ATLAS, abridged from S. R. Gardiner's 'School Atlas of English History.' Post 4to. 1s.

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OLIVER CROMWELL. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.

THE FIRST TWO STUARTS AND THE PURITAN REVOLUTION, 1603-1660. 4 Maps. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648. With a Map. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

OUTLINE OF ENGLISH HISTORY, B.C. 55-A.D. 1910. With 67 Woodcuts and 17 Maps. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

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PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

The present work is intended for such students as have already an elementary knowledge of the main facts of English history, and aims at meeting their needs by the use of plain language on the one hand, and by the avoidance, on the other hand, of that multiplicity of details which is apt to overburden the memory.

At the close of the book I have treated the last eleven years, 1874 to 1885, in a manner which precludes all expression of my own views, either on the characters of the actors or on the value of the work performed by them; and something of the same reticence will be observed in the pages dealing with the years immediately preceding 1874. We have not the material before us for the formation of a final judgment on many points arising in the course of the narrative, and it is therefore better to abstain from the expression of decided opinion, except on matters so completely before the public as to leave no room for hesitation. Especially is this rule to be observed in a book addressed to those who are not yet at an age when independent investigation is possible.

I hope it will be understood that in my mention of various authors I have had no intention of writing a history of literature, however brief. My object has been throughout to exhibit that side of literature which connects itself with the general political or intellectual movement of the country, and to leave unnoticed the purely literary or scientific qualities of the writers mentioned. This will explain, for instance, the total omission of the name of Roger Bacon, and the brief and, if regarded from a different point of view, the very unsatisfactory treatment of writers like Dickens and Thackeray.

Those of my readers who have complained that no maps were to be found in the book may now be referred to a 'School Atlas of English History,' recently edited by me for Messrs. Longmans & Co. To include an adequate number of maps in this volume would have increased its size beyond all fitting limits.

In the spelling of Indian names I have not adopted the modern and improved system of transliteration. Admirable as it is when used by those who are able to give the right sound to each letter, it only leads to mispronunciation in the mouths of those who are, as most of the readers of this volume will be, entirely in the dark on this point. The old rough method of our fathers at least ensures a fair approximation to the true pronunciation.

My warmest thanks are due to Mr. George Nutt, of Rugby, and to the Rev. W. Hunt. Mr. Nutt not only looked over the proof-sheets up to the death of Edward I. with excellent results, but gave me most valuable advice as to the general arrangement of the book, founded on his own long experience of scholastic teaching. The Rev. W. Hunt looked over a considerable portion of the remaining proof-sheets, and called my attention to several errors and omissions which had escaped my eye.

The illustrations have been selected by Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, Assistant-Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. He wishes to acknowledge much valuable assistance given to him in the choice of portraits by George Scharf, Esq., C.B., F.S.A., who is recognised as the highest authority on the subject.

I am indebted to Her Majesty the Queen for permission to engrave two of the portraits appearing in the following pages—viz., those of Bishop Fisher, on p. 393, and the Duke of Norfolk, on p. 410—the originals in both cases being at Windsor Castle.

I have to thank Earl Spencer for permission to engrave the portrait on p. 362; the Earl of Essex for that on p. 476; the Earl of Warwick for that on p. 403; the Earl of Carlisle for that on p. 459; the Viscount Dillon, F.S.A., for that on p. 376; the Hon Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, K.C.B., for that on p. 365; Sir John Farnaby Lennard, Bart., for that on p. 463; Dr. Evans for those on pp. [2], [4], [6]; Edward Huth, Esq., for that on p. 387; Mrs. Dent, of Sudeley, for that on p. 395; H. Hucks Gibbs, Esq., for that on p. 419; T. A. Hope, Esq., for that on p. 487; E. B. Nicholson, Esq., for the portrait of Lord Burghley in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, engraved at p. 479; the authorities of the University of Cambridge for that on p. 477; of Jesus College, Cambridge, for that on p. 414; and of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, for that on p. 567; and the Treasurer of Christ's Hospital, London, for the portrait of Charles II. on p. 579. I have also to thank Mr. John Murray for permission to engrave the figures on pp. [130], [150], [160], [166], [177], [188], [260]; Messrs. Parker & Co., Oxford, for those on pp. [19], [51], [75], [91], [107], [128], [170], [192], [197], [230], [245], [246], [247], [253], 409, 451; Mr. W. Nives for those at pp. 381, 409, 451; Mr. J. G. Waller for those on pp. [219], [229], [292], [298], 515; Mr. Bruce for those on pp. [17], [18], [21]; Messrs. Poulton & Sons, Lee, for those on pp. [7], [132]; Mr. G. A. Nichols, Stamford, for those on pp. [311], [316], Mr. G. T. Clarke, for that on p. [74]; Messrs. Carl Norman & Co., Tunbridge Wells, for that on p. [171]; Mr. R. Keene, Derby, for that on p. [318]; the Rev. H. H. Henson, Vicar of Barking, Essex, for the photograph of the monument of Sir Charles Montague on p. 507; the Science and Art Department for those on pp. 371, 440, 518, 612; Mr. W. H. Wheeler, of Oxford, for those on pp. [319], 384; Messrs. Valentine & Sons, Dundee, for those on pp. [109], [206], [213], [238], [244], [276], [355], 378, 485, 662, 666, 668, 683, 907, 919, 937, 942; and Mr. R. Keene, Derby, for those on pp. 466, 467, 469, 471.

CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME

PART I.
ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

[CHAPTER I.]
PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN BRITAIN.

• PAGE

• Palæolithic Man of the River-Drift [1]
• Cave-dwelling Palæolithic Man [2]
• Neolithic Man [3]
• Celts and Iberians [5]
• The Celts in Britain [6]
• Goidels and Britons [6]
• Phœnicians and Greeks [7]
• Gauls and Belgians in Britain [8]
• Culture and War [9]
• Religion of the Britons [10]
• The Romans in Gaul B.C. 55 [10]
• Cæsar's First Invasion. B.C. 55 [11]
• Cæsar's Second Invasion. B.C. 54 [11]
• South-eastern Britain after Cæsar's Departure. B.C. 54—A.D. 43 [12]
• The Roman Empire [12]
• The Invasion of Aulus Plautius. A.D. 43 [12]
• The Colony of Camulodunum [13]
• The Conquests of Ostorius Scapula [14]
• Government of Suetonius Paullinus. 58 [14]
• Boadicea's Insurrection. 61 [15]
• The Vengeance of Suetonius [15]
• Agricola in Britain. 78—84 [16]
• Agricola's Conquests in the North [16]
• The Roman Walls [17]
• The Roman Province of Britain [19]
• Extinction of Tribal Antagonism [21]
• Want of National Feeling [22]
• Carausius and Allectus. 288—296 [22]
• Constantius and Constantine. 296—337 [22]
• Christianity in Britain [23]
• Weakness of the Empire [23]
• The Picts and Scots [23]
• The Saxons [24]
• Origin of the Saxons [24]
• The Roman Defence [24]
• End of the Roman Government. 383—410 [25]

[CHAPTER II.]
THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

• Britain after the Departure of the Romans. 410—449? [26]
• The Groans of the Britons [26]
• The Conquest of Kent. 449? [27]
• The South Saxons. 477 [27]
• The West Saxons and the East Saxons [28]
• The Anglian Settlements [28]
• Nature of the Conquest [28]
• The Cultivators of the Soil [29]
• Eorls, Ceorls, Gesiths [29]
• The Gesiths and the Villagers [30]
• English and Welsh [31]
• The Township and the Hundred [31]
• Weregild [32]
• Compurgation and Ordeal [32]
• Punishments [32]
• The Folk-moot [33]
• The Kingship [33]
• The Legend of Arthur [33]
• The West Saxon Advance [34]
• Repulse of the West Saxons [35]
• The Advance of the Angles [36]
• The Kymry [36]
• Britain at the End of the Sixth Century [37]

[CHAPTER III.]
THE STRIFE OF THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS.

• England and the Continent [37]
• Æthelberht's Supremacy [38]
• Gregory and the English [38]
• Augustine's Mission. 597 [39]
• Monastic Christianity [39]
• The Archbishopric of Canterbury [40]
• Death of Æthelberht. 616 [41]
• The Three Kingdoms opposed to the Welsh [41]
• Æthelfrith and the Kymry [41]
• Æthelfrith's Victories [42]
• The Greatness of Eadwine [43]
• Eadwine's Supremacy [44]
• Character of the later Conquests [44]
• Political Changes [45]
• Eadwine's Conversion and Fall [46]
• Oswald's Victory at Heavenfield [47]
• Oswald and Aidan [47]
• Oswald's Greatness and Overthrow [47]
• Penda's Overthrow [48]
• The Three Kingdoms and the Welsh [48]
• The English Missionaries [49]
• Dispute between Wilfrid and Colman. 664 [49]
• Archbishop Theodore and the Penitential System [50]
• Ealdhelm and Cædmon [51]
• Bede. 673—735 [52]
• Church Councils [52]
• Struggle between Mercia and Wessex [52]
• Mohammedanism and the Carolingian Empire [54]
• Ecgberht's Rule. 802—839 [54]

[CHAPTER IV.]
THE ENGLISH KINGSHIP AND THE STRUGGLE WITH THE DANES.

• The West Saxon Supremacy [55]
• The Coming of the Northmen [56]
• The English Coast Plundered [57]
• The Danes in the North [57]
• Ælfred's Struggle in Wessex. 871—878 [58]
• The Treaty of Chippenham, and its Results. 878 [59]
• Ælfred's Military Work [60]
• His Laws and Scholarship [60]
• Eadward the Elder. 899—925 [62]
• Eadward's Conquests [62]
• Eadward and the Scots [63]
• Æthelstan. 925—940 [63]
• Eadmund (940—946) and Eadred (946—955) [63]
• Danes and English [64]
• Eadwig. 955—959 [64]
• Dunstan [65]
• Archbishop Oda [65]
• Eadwig's Marriage [67]

[CHAPTER V.]
EADGAR'S ENGLAND.

• Eadgar and Dunstan. 959—975 [67]
• The Cession of Lothian [68]
• Changes in English Institutions [69]
• Growth of the King's Power [69]
• Conversion of the Freemen into Serfs [69]
• The Hundred-moot and the Lord's Court [72]
• The Towns [72]
• The Origin of the Shires [73]
• The Shire-moot [73]
• The Ealdormen and the Witenagemot [73]
• The Land [75]
• Domestic Life [75]
• Food and Drink [75]

[CHAPTER VI.]
ENGLAND AND NORMANDY.

• Eadward the Martyr. 975—979 [78]
• Æthelred's Early Years. 979—988 [79]
• The Return of the Danes. 984 [79]
• The Norman Dukes. 912—1002 [80]
• Political Contrast between Normandy and England [81]
• Svend's Conquest. 1002—1013 [81]
• Æthelred Restored. 1014—1016 [82]
• Eadmund Ironside. 1016 [83]
• Cnut and the Earldoms. 1016—1035 [83]
• Cnut's Empire [84]
• Cnut's Government [84]
• The Sons of Cnut. 1035—1042 [85]
• Eadward the Confessor and Earl Godwine. 1042—1051 [86]
• The Banishment of Godwine. 1051 [87]
• Visit of Duke William. 1051 [88]
• William and the Norman Church [88]
• The Return and Death of Godwine. 1052—1053 [89]
• Harold's Greatness. 1053—1066 [89]
• Harold and Eadward. 1057—1065 [90]
• Death of Eadward. 1066 [90]
• Harold and William. 1066 [91]
• Stamford Bridge. 1066 [93]
• The Landing of William. 1066 [96]
• The Battle of Senlac. 1066 [96]
• William's Coronation. 1066 [98]

PART II.
THE NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS.

[CHAPTER VII.]
WILLIAM I. 1066—1087.

• The First Months of the Conquest. 1066—1067 [101]
• The Conquest of the West and North. 1067—1069 [102]
• The Completion of the Conquest. 1070 [103]
• Hereward's Revolt and the Homage of Malcolm. 1070—1072 [103]
• How William kept down the English [104]
• How William kept down the Normans [105]
• Ecclesiastical Organisation. [106]
• Pope Gregory VII. [107]
• William and Gregory VII. [108]
• The Rising of the Earls. 1075 [110]
• The New Forest [110]
• Domesday Book. 1085—1086 [111]
• William's Great Councils [112]
• The Gemot at Salisbury. 1086 [113]
• William's Death. 1087 [114]

[CHAPTER VIII.]
WILLIAM II. 1087—1100.

• The Accession of the Red King. 1087 [114]
• The Wickedness of the Red King [115]
• Ranulf Flambard [116]
• Feudal Dues [116]
• Archbishop Anselm [117]
• The Council of Rockingham. 1095 [118]
• William II. and his Brothers [118]
• William and Scotland. 1093—1094 [119]
• Mowbray's Rebellion. 1095 [120]
• The First Crusade. 1095—1099 [120]
• Normandy in Pledge. 1096 [121]
• The Last Years of the Red King [121]
• The Death of the Red King. 1100 [122]

[CHAPTER IX.]
HENRY I. AND STEPHEN.
HENRY I., 1100—1135. STEPHEN, 1135—1154.

• The Accession of Henry I. 1100 [122]
• Invasion of Robert. 1101 [124]
• Revolt of Robert of Bellême. 1102 [124]
• The Battle of Tinchebrai. 1106 [124]
• Henry and Anselm. 1100—1107 [125]
• Roger of Salisbury [126]
• Growth of Trade [127]
• The Benedictines [128]
• The Cistercians [129]
• The White Ship [129]
• The Last Years of Henry I. [131]
• Stephen's Accession. 1135 [131]
• Civil War [133]
• Stephen's Quarrel with the Clergy. 1139 [134]
• Anarchy. 1139 [134]
• The End of the War. 1141—1148 [135]
• Henry, Duke of the Normans. 1149 [136]
• The Last Days of Stephen. 1153—1154 [137]

[CHAPTER X.]
HENRY II. 1154—1189.

• Henry's Accession. 1154 [138]
• Pacification of England [138]
• Henry and Feudality [140]
• The Great Council and the Curia Regis [141]
• Scutage [141]
• Archbishop Thomas. 1162 [142]
• Breach between Henry and Thomas [143]
• The Constitutions of Clarendon. 1164 [143]
• The Persecution of Archbishop Thomas. 1164 [145]
• The Assize of Clarendon. 1166 [146]
• Recognitions [147]
• The Germ of the Jury [147]
• The Itinerant Justices Revived [148]
• The Inquisition of the Sheriffs. 1170 [148]
• The Nobles and the Church [149]
• The Coronation of Young Henry. 1170 [149]
• The Return of Archbishop Thomas. 1170 [149]
• Murder of Archbishop Thomas. 1170 [149]
• Popular Indignation. 1171 [151]
• State of Ireland [151]
• Partial Conquest of Ireland. 1166—1172 [152]
• Young Henry's Coronation and the Revolt of the Barons. 1172—1174 [153]
• The Assize of Arms. 1181 [154]
• Henry II. and his Sons [155]
• The Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 1187 [156]
• The Last Years of Henry II. 1188—1189 [157]
• The Work of Henry II. [157]

[CHAPTER XI.]
RICHARD I. 1189—1199.

• Richard in England. 1189 [159]
• William of Longchamps. 1189—1191 [159]
• The Third Crusade. 1189—1192 [161]
• The Return of Richard. 1192—1194 [161]
• Heavy Taxation [162]
• The Administration of Hubert Walter. 1194—1198 [163]
• Death of Richard. 1199 [165]
• Church and State under the Angevin Kings [165]
• Growth of Learning [167]
• The University of Oxford [167]
• Country and Town [168]
• Condition of London [169]
• Architectural Changes [170]

PART III
THE GROWTH OF THE PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTION. 1199-1399.

[CHAPTER XII.]
JOHN. 1199-1216.

• The Accession of John. 1199 [173]
• John's First War with Philip II. 1199-1200 [173]
• John's Misconduct in Poitou 1200-1201 [174]
• The Loss of Normandy and Anjou. 1202-1204 [174]
• Causes of Philip's Success [176]
• The Election of Stephen Langton to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. 1205 [176]
• Innocent III. and Stephen Langton. 1206 [177]
• John's Quarrel with the Church. 1206-1208 [178]
• England under an Interdict. 1208 [178]
• John Excommunicated. 1209 [178]
• The Pope threatens John with Deposition. 1212-1213 [179]
• John's Submission. 1213 [180]
• The Resistance of the Barons and Clergy. 1213 [180]
• The Battle of Bouvines. 1214 [181]
• The Struggle between John and the Barons. 1214-1215 [181]
• Magna Carta. 1215 [182]
• War between John and the Barons. 1215-1216 [184]
• Conflict between Louis and John. 1216 [184]

[CHAPTER XIII.]
HENRY III. 1216-1272.

• Henry III. and Louis. 1216-1217 [185]
• The Renewal of the Great Charter. 1216-1217 [185]
• Administration of Hubert de Burgh. 1219-1232 [186]
• Administration of Peter des Roches. 1232-1234 [188]
• Francis of Assisi [190]
• St. Dominic [190]
• The Coming of the Friars. 1220-1224 [191]
• Monks and Friars [191]
• The King's Marriage. 1236 [192]
• The Early Career of Simon de Montfort. 1231-1243 [193]
• Papal Exactions. 1237-1243 [194]
• A Weak Parliamentary Opposition. 1244 [194]
• Growing Discontent. 1244-1254 [195]
• The Knights of the Shire in Parliament. 1254 [196]
• Fresh Exactions. 1254-1257 [196]
• The Provisions of Oxford. 1258 [198]
• The Expulsion of the Foreigners. 1258 [199]
• Edward and the Barons. 1259 [199]
• The Breach amongst the Barons. 1259—1261 [199]
• Royalist Reaction and Civil War. 1261 [200]
• The Mise of Amiens. 1264 [200]
• The Battle of Lewes. 1264 [201]
• Earl Simon's Government. 1264—1265 [201]
• The Battle of Evesham. 1265 [203]
• The Last Years of Henry III. 1265—1272 [204]
• General Progress of the Country [206]

[CHAPTER XIV.]
EDWARD I. AND EDWARD II.
EDWARD I., 1272—1307. EDWARD II., 1307—1327.

• The First Years of Edward I. 1272—1279 [208]
• Edward I. and Wales. 1276—1284 [210]
• Customs Duties. 1275 [210]
• Edward's Judicial Reforms. 1274—1290 [212]
• Edward's Legislation. 1279—1290 [212]
• Edward as a National and as a Feudal Ruler [212]
• The Scottish Succession. 1285—1290 [214]
• Death of Eleanor of Castile. 1290 [214]
• The Award of Norham. 1291—1292 [215]
• Disputes with Scotland and France. 1293—1295 [216]
• The Model Parliament. 1295 [218]
• The First Conquest of Scotland. 1296 [219]
• The Resistance of Archbishop Winchelsey. 1296—1297 [220]
• The 'Confirmatio Cartarum.' 1297 [220]
• Wallace's Rising. 1297—1304 [221]
• The Second Conquest of Scotland. 1298—1304 [221]
• The Incorporation of Scotland with England. 1305 [222]
• Character of Edward's Dealings with Scotland [222]
• Robert Bruce. 1306 [223]
• Edward's Third Conquest of Scotland and Death. 1306—1307 [224]
• Edward II. and Piers Gaveston. 1307—1312 [224]
• Success of Robert Bruce. 1307—1314 [226]
• Lancaster's Government. 1314—1322 [228]
• A Constitutional Settlement. 1322 [228]
• The Rule of the Despensers. 1322—1326 [228]
• The Deposition and Murder of Edward II. 1327 [229]

[CHAPTER XV.]
FROM THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD III. TO THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1327—1360.

• Mortimer's Government. 1327—1330 [231]
• The French Succession. 1328—1331 [232]
• Troubles in Scotland. 1331—1336 [232]
• Dispute with France. 1336—1337 [234]
• Edward's Allies. 1337—1338 [235]
• Chivalry and War [235]
• Commerce and War [236]
• Attacks on the North of France. 1338—1340 [237]
• Battle of Sluys. 1340 [239]
• Attacks on the West of France. 1341—1345 [240]
• The Campaign of Creçy. 1346 [240]
• The Tactics of Creçy. 1346 [241]
• The Battle of Creçy. August 26, 1346 [242]
• Battle of Nevill's Cross, and the Siege of Calais. 1346—1347 [242]
• Constitutional Progress. 1337—1347 [243]
• Edward's Triumph. 1347 [246]
• The Black Death. 1348 [248]
• The Statute of Labourers. 1351 [248]
• The Statute of Treasons. 1352 [250]
• The Black Prince in the South of France. 1355 [251]
• The Battle of Poitiers. 1356 [251]
• The Courtesy of the Black Prince [252]
• Misery of France. 1356—1359 [252]
• Edward's Last Invasion. 1359—1360 [252]
• The Treaty of Bretigni. 1360 [253]

[CHAPTER XVI.]
REIGN OF EDWARD III. AFTER THE TREATY OF BRETIGNI.
1360—1377.

• The First Years of Peace. 1360—1364 [254]
• The Spanish Troubles. 1364—1368 [254]
• The Taxation of Aquitaine. 1368—1369 [256]
• The Renewed War. 1369—1375 [256]
• Anti-Papal Legislation. 1351—1366 [257]
• Predominance of the English Language [258]
• Piers the Plowman. 1362 [258]
• The Anti-Clerical Party. 1371 [259]
• The Duke of Lancaster. 1374—1376 [260]
• John Wycliffe. 1366—1376 [261]
• Lancaster and the Black Prince. 1376 [261]
• The Good Parliament. 1376 [262]
• The Last Year of Edward III. 1376—1377 [262]
• Ireland from the Reign of John to that of Edward II. [264]
• The Statute of Kilkenny. 1367 [265]
• Weakness of the English Colony. 1367—1377 [265]

[CHAPTER XVII.]
RICHARD II. AND THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION.
1377—1381.

• The First Years of Richard II. 1377—1378 [266]
• Wycliffe and the Great Schism. 1378—1381 [266]
• The Poll Taxes. 1379—1381 [267]
• The Peasants' Grievances [268]
• The Peasants' Revolt. 1381 [268]
• The Suppression of the Revolt [269]
• Results of the Peasants' Revolt [269]
• Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' [270]
• The Prologue of the 'Canterbury Tales' [270]
• Chaucer and the Clergy [271]
• Roads and Bridges [272]
• Modes of Conveyance [273]
• Hospitality and Inns [274]
• Alehouses [274]
• Wanderers [274]
• Robbers and Criminals [275]
• Justices of the Peace [277]

[CHAPTER XVIII.]
RICHARD II. AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
1382—1399.

• Progress of the War with France. 1382—1386 [278]
• Richard's Growing Unpopularity. 1385—1386 [278]
• The Impeachment of Suffolk and the Commission of Regency. 1386 [279]
• The Lords Appellant and the Merciless Parliament. 1387—1388 [279]
• Richard's Restoration to Power. 1389 [280]
• Richard's Constitutional Government. 1389—1396 [280]
• Livery and Maintenance. 1390 [281]
• Richard's Domestic Policy. 1390—1391 [281]
• Richard's Foreign Policy. 1389—1396 [282]
• Richard's Coup d'État. 1397 [282]
• The Parliament of Shrewsbury. 1398 [283]
• The Banishment of Hereford and Norfolk. 1398 [283]
• Richard's Despotism. 1398—1399 [283]
• Henry of Lancaster in England. 1399 [284]
• The Deposition of Richard and the Enthronement of Henry IV. 1399 [285]
• Nature of the Claim of Henry IV. [286]

PART IV.
LANCASTER, YORK, AND TUDOR. 1399—1509.

[CHAPTER XIX.]
HENRY IV. AND HENRY V.
HENRY IV., 1399—1413. HENRY V., 1413—1422.

• Henry's First Difficulties. 1399—1400 [289]
• Death of Richard II. 1400 [291]
• Henry IV. and the Church [291]
• The Statute for the Burning of Heretics. 1401 [292]
• Henry IV. and Owen Glendower. 1400—1402 [292]
• The Rebellion of the Percies. 1402—1404 [293]
• The Commons and the Church. 1404 [294]
• The Capture of the Scottish Prince. 1405 [295]
• The Execution of Archbishop Scrope. 1405 [296]
• France, Wales, and the North. 1405—1408 [296]
• Henry, Prince of Wales. 1409—1410 [297]
• The Last Years of Henry IV. 1411-1413 [298]
• Henry V. and the Lollards. 1413-1414 [299]
• Henry's Claim to the Throne of France. 1414 [300]
• The Invasion of France. 1415 [301]
• The March to Agincourt. 1415 [302]
• The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415 [302]
• Henry's Diplomacy. 1416-1417 [303]
• Henry's Conquest of Normandy. 1417-1419 [303]
• The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the Treaty of Troyes. 1419-1420 [304]
• The Close of the Reign of Henry V. 1420-1422 [306]

[CHAPTER XX.]
HENRY VI. AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE. 1422-1451.

• Bedford and Gloucester. 1422 [307]
• Bedford's Success in France. 1423-1424 [307]
• Gloucester's Invasion of Hainault. 1424 [308]
• Gloucester and Beaufort. 1425-1428 [308]
• The Siege of Orleans. 1428-1429 [309]
• Jeanne Darc and the Relief of Orleans. 1429 [310]
• The Coronation of Charles VII. and the Capture of the Maid. 1429-1430 [311]
• The Martyrdom at Rouen. 1431 [312]
• The Last Years of the Duke of Bedford. 1431-1435 [312]
• The Defection of Burgundy. 1435 [313]
• The Duke of York in France. 1436-1437 [313]
• The English Lose Ground. 1437-1443 [313]
• Continued Rivalry of Beaufort and Gloucester. 1439-1441 [314]
• Beaufort and Somerset. 1442-1443 [317]
• The Angevin Marriage Treaty. 1444-1445 [317]
• Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort. 1447 [318]
• The Loss of the French Provinces. 1448-1449 [318]

[CHAPTER XXI.]
THE LATER YEARS OF HENRY VI. 1450-1461.

• The Growth of Inclosures [320]
• Increasing Power of the Nobility [321]
• Case of Lord Molynes and John Paston [321]
• Suffolk's Impeachment and Murder. 1450 [322]
• Jack Cade's Rebellion. 1450 [322]
• Rivalry of York and Somerset. 1450-1453 [323]
• The First Protectorate of the Duke of York. 1453-1454 [323]
• The First Battle of St. Albans and the Duke of York's Second Protectorate [324]
• Discomfiture of the Yorkists. 1456-1459 [325]
• The Battle of Northampton and the Duke of York's Claim to the Throne. 1460 [326]
• The Battle of Wakefield. 1460 [327]
• The Battle of Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St. Albans. 1461 [328]
• The Battle of Towton and the Coronation of Edward IV. 1461 [328]

[CHAPTER XXII.]
THE YORKIST KINGS.
1461—1485.

• Edward IV. and the House of Commons. 1461 [329]
• Loss of the Mediæval Ideals [330]
• Fresh Efforts of the Lancastrians. 1462—1465 [331]
• Edward's Marriage. 1464 [331]
• Estrangement of Warwick. 1465—1468 [332]
• Warwick's Alliance with Clarence. 1469—1470 [332]
• The Restoration of Henry VI. 1470 [333]
• Edward IV. recovers the Throne. 1471 [334]
• Edward IV. prepares for War with France. 1471—1474 [334]
• The Invasion of France. 1475 [336]
• Fall and Death of Clarence. 1476—1478 [336]
• The Last Years of Edward IV. 1478—1483 [336]
• Edward V. and the Duke of Gloucester. 1483 [337]
• Fall of the Queen's Relations. 1483 [338]
• Execution of Lord Hastings [338]
• Deposition of Edward V. 1483 [340]
• Buckingham's Rebellion. 1483 [341]
• Murder of the Princes. 1483 [342]
• Richard's Government. 1484—1485 [342]
• Richard Defeated and Slain at Bosworth. 1485 [343]

[CHAPTER XXIII.]
HENRY VII. 1485—1509.

• The First Measures of Henry VII. 1485—1486 [343]
• Maintenance and Livery [345]
• Lovel's Rising. 1486 [346]
• Lancaster and York in Ireland. 1399—1485 [346]
• Insurrection of Lambert Simnel. 1487 [347]
• The Court of Star Chamber. 1487 [348]
• Henry VII. and Brittany. 1488—1492 [348]
• Cardinal Morton's Fork. 1491 [349]
• The Invasion of France. 1492 [349]
• Perkin Warbeck. 1491—1494 [350]
• Poynings' Acts. 1494 [350]
• Perkin's First Attempt on England. 1495 [351]
• The Intercursus Magnus. 1496 [351]
• Kildare Restored to the Deputyship. 1496 [352]
• Perkin's Overthrow. 1496—1497 [352]
• European Changes. 1494—1499 [352]
• Execution of the Earl of Warwick. 1499 [354]
• Prince Arthur's Marriage and Death. 1501—1502 [354]
• The Scottish Marriage. 1503 [356]
• Maritime Enterprise [356]
• Growth of the Royal Power [356]
• Empson and Dudley [357]
• Henry and his Daughter-in-law. 1502—1505 [357]
• The Last Years of Henry VII. 1505—1509 [357]
• Architectural Changes and the Printing Press [358]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

• FIG. Page

• Palæolithic flint scraper from Icklingham, Suffolk [2]
• Palæolithic flint implement from Hoxne, Suffolk [2]
  (From Evans's 'Ancient Stone Implements')
• Engraved bone from Cresswell Crags, Derbyshire [3]
  (From the original in the British Museum)
• Neolithic flint arrow-head from Rudstone, Yorks [3]
• Neolithic celt or cutting instrument from Guernsey [3]
• Neolithic axe from Winterbourn Steepleton, Dorset [4]
  (From Evans's 'Ancient Stone Implements')
• Example of early British pottery [4]
• 9. Examples of early British pottery [5]
  (From Greenwell's 'British Barrows')
• Bronze celt from the Isle of Harty, Kent [6]
• Bronze lance-head found in Ireland [6]
• Bronze caldron found in Ireland [6]
  (From Evans's 'Ancient Bronze Implements')
• View of Stonehenge [7]
  (From a photograph)
• Part of a British gold corselet found at Mold, now in the British Museum [9]
  (From the 'Archæologia')
• Bust of Julius Cæsar [10]
  (From the original in the British Museum)
• Commemorative tablet of the Second Legion found at Halton Chesters on the Roman Wall [17]
• View of part of the Roman Wall [18]
• Ruins of a mile-castle on the Roman Wall [18]
  (From Bruce's 'Handbook to the Roman Wall,' 2nd edition)
• Part of the Roman Wall at Leicester [19]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Pediment of a Roman temple found at Bath [20]
  (Reduced from the 'Archæologia')
• Roman altar from Rutchester [21]
  (From Bruce's 'Handbook to the Roman Wall', 2nd edition)
• Plan of the city of Old Sarum [34]
  (From the Ordnance Survey Plan)
• View of Old Sarum [35]
  (Reduced from Sir R. C. Hoare's 'History of Modern Wiltshire. Old and New Sarum')
• Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts [51]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Saxon horsemen [53]
• Group of Saxon warriors [53]
  (From Harl. MS. 603)
• Remains of a viking ship from Gokstad [56]
  (From a photograph of the original at Christiania)
• Gold ring of Æthelwulf [57]
• Gold jewel of Ælfred found at Athelney [59]
  (From 'Archæological Journal')
• An English vessel [60]
• A Saxon house [61]
  (From Harl. MS. 603)
• A monk driven out of the King's presence [66]
  (From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• Rural life in the eleventh century. January to June [70]
• Rural life in the eleventh century. July to December [71]
  (From Cott. MS. Julius A. vi.)
• Plan and section of a burh of the eleventh century at Laughton-en-le-Morthen, Yorks [74]
  (From G. T. Clark's 'Mediæval Military Architecture')
• Glass tumbler [76]
• Drinking-glass [76]
• Comb and case of Scandinavian type found at York [77]
  (From the originals in the British Museum)
• Martyrdom of St. Edmund by the Danes [82]
  (From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• First Great Seal of Eadward the Confessor (obverse) [86]
  (From an original impression)
• Hunting. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [87]
  (Reduced from 'Vetusta Monumenta,' vol. vi.)
• Tower in the earlier style, church at Earl's Barton [91]
• Tower in the earlier style, St. Benet's church, Cambridge [91]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Building a church in the later style [92]
  (From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• Normans feasting; with Odo, bishop of Bayeux, saying grace. [93]
  (From the Bayeux Tapestry)
• Harold swearing upon the Relics. [94]
  (From the Bayeux Tapestry)
• A Norman ship. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [95]
• Norman soldiers mounted. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [95]
• Group of archers on foot. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [96]
• Men fighting with axes. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [97]
• Death of Harold. (From the Bayeux Tapestry) [98]
  (Reduced from 'Vetusta Monumenta,' vol. vi.)
• Coronation of a king, temp. William the Conqueror [99]
  (From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• Silver penny of William the Conqueror, struck at Romney [101]
  (From an original specimen)
• Silver penny of William the Conqueror, struck at Romney [101]
  (From an original specimen)
• East end of Darenth church, Kent [107]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 6th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Part of the nave of St. Alban's abbey church [109]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• Facsimile of a part of Domesday Book relating to Berkshire [112]
  (From the original MS. in the Public Record Office)
• Henry I. and his queen Matilda [123]
  (From Hollis's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Seal of Milo of Gloucester, showing mounted armed figure in the reign of Henry I. [125]
  (From an original impression)
• Monument of Roger, bishop of Salisbury, died 1139 [127]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Porchester church, Hampshire, built about 1135 [128]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Part of the nave of Durham cathedral, built about 1130 [130]
  (From Scott's 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J. Murray)
• Keep of Rochester castle, built between 1126 and 1139 [132]
  (From a photograph by Poulton & Sons, Lee)
• Keep of Castle Rising, built about 1140-50 [133]
  (From a photograph)
• Tower of Castor church, Northamptonshire, built about 1145 [136]
  (From Britton's 'Architectural Antiquities')
• Effigies of Henry II. and queen Eleanor [139]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Ecclesiastical costume in the twelfth century [142]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero C. iv. f. 37)
• A bishop ordaining a priest [144]
• Small ship of the latter part of the twelfth century [146]
  (From 'Harley Roll,' Y. 6)
• Part of the choir of Canterbury cathedral, in building 1175-1184 [150]
  (From Scott's 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J. Murray)
• Mitre of archbishop Thomas of Canterbury, preserved at Sens [153]
  (From Shaw's 'Dresses and Decorations')
• Military and civil costume of the latter part of the twelfth century [154]
  (From 'Harley Roll,' Y. 6)
• Royal Arms of England from Richard I. to Edward III. [159]
  (From the wall arcade, south aisle of nave, Westminster Abbey)
• The Galilee or Lady chapel, Durham cathedral, built by bishop Hugh of Puiset, between 1180 and 1197 [160]
  (From Scott's 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J. Murray)
• Effigy of a knight in the Temple church, London, showing armour of the end of the twelfth century [162]
  (From Hollis's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Effigies of Richard I. and queen Berengaria [164]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Part of the choir of Ripon cathedral, built during the last quarter of the twelfth century [166]
  (From Scott's 'Mediæval Architecture,' London, J. Murray)
• Lay costumes in the twelfth century [168]
• Costume of shepherds in the twelfth century [168]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero C. iv. ff. 11 and 16)
• Hall of Oakham castle, Rutland, built about 1185 [170]
  (From Hudson Turner's 'Domestic Architecture')
• Norman house at Lincoln, called the Jews' House [171]
  (From a photograph by Carl Norman, Tunbridge Wells)
• Effigies of king John and queen Isabella [175]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Effigy of bishop Marshall of Exeter, died 1206 [177]
  (From Murray's 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
• Parsonage house of early thirteenth-century date at West Dean, Sussex [179]
  (From Hudson Turner's 'Domestic Architecture')
• Effigy of a knight in the Temple church, London, showing armour worn between 1190 and 1225 [182]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Silver penny of John, struck at Dublin [184]
  (From an original example)
• Effigy of Henry III. (From his tomb at Westminster) [186]
• Effigy of William Longespée, earl of Salisbury, died 1227, from his tomb at Salisbury, showing armour worn from about 1225 to 1250 [187]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Effigy of Simon, bishop of Exeter, died 1223 [188]
  (From Murray's 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
• Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, the south transept; built about 1220—1230 [189]
  (From Britton's 'Architectural Antiquities')
• Longthorpe manor house, Northamptonshire, built about 1235 [192]
  (From Hudson Turner's 'Domestic Architecture')
• A ship in the reign of Henry III. [193]
• A bed in the reign of Henry III. [196]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero D. i. ff. 21 and 22 b)
• Barn of thirteenth-century date at Raunds, Northamptonshire [197]
  (From Hudson Turner's 'Domestic Architecture')
• A fight between armed and mounted knights of the time of Henry III. [201]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 4)
• Seal of Robert Fitzwalter, showing a mounted knight in complete mail armour; date about 1265 [202]
  (From an original impression)
• Effigy of a knight at Gosperton, showing armour worn from about 1250 to 1300; date about 1270 [203]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Building operations in the reign of Henry III., with the king giving directions to the architect [204]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 23 b)
• East end of Westminster abbey church; begun by Henry III. in 1245 [205]
  (From a photograph)
• Nave of Salisbury cathedral church, looking west; date, between 1240 and 1250 [206]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• A king and labourers in the reign of Henry III. [207]
  (From Cott. MS. Nero D. i. f. 21 b)
• Great Seal of Edward I. (slightly reduced) [209]
  (From an original impression)
• Group of armed knights and a king in ordinary dress; date, temp. Edward I. [211]
  (From Arundel MS. 83, f. 132)
• Nave of Lichfield cathedral church, looking east; built about 1280 [213]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• Effigy of Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I., in Westminster abbey [215]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Cross erected near Northampton by Edward I. in memory of queen Eleanor [217]
  (From a photograph)
• Sir John d'Abernoun, died 1277, from his brass at Stoke Dabernon; showing armour worn from about 1250 to 1300 [219]
  (From Waller's 'Monumental Brasses')
• Edward II. from his monument in Gloucester cathedral [225]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Lincoln cathedral, the central tower; built about 1310 [227]
  (From Britton's 'Architectural Antiquities')
• Sir John de Creke, from his brass at Westley Waterless, Cambridgeshire; showing armour worn between 1300 and 1335 or 1340; date, about 1325 [229]
  (From Waller's 'Monumental Brasses')
• Howden church, Yorkshire, the west front [230]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Effigies of Edward III. and queen Philippa, from their tombs in Westminster abbey [233]
  (From Blore's 'Monumental Remains')
• A knight—Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, who died 1345—receiving his helm and pennon from his wife; another lady holds his shield [236]
  (From the Luttrell Psalter, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
• William of Hatfield, second son of Edward III., from his tomb in York Minster [237]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• York Minster, the nave, looking west [238]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• Royal Arms of Edward III., from his tomb [239]
  (From a photograph)
• Shooting at the butts with the long bow [241]
• Contemporary view of a fourteenth-century walled town [243]
  (From the Luttrell Psalter, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
• Gloucester cathedral church, the choir, looking east [244]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• The lord's upper chamber or solar at Sutton Courtenay manor-house; date, about 1350 [245]
• Interior of the hall at Penshurst, Kent; built about 1340 [246]
• A small house or cottage at Meare, Somerset; built about 1350 [247]
• Norborough Hall, Northamptonshire; built about 1350 [247]
  (From Hudson Turner's 'Domestic Architecture')
• Ploughing [248]
• Harrowing; and a boy slinging stones at the birds [248]
• Breaking the clods with mallets [249]
• Cutting weeds [249]
• Reaping [249]
• Stacking corn [250]
• Threshing corn with a flail [250]
  (From the Luttrell Psalter, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
• West front of Edington church, Wilts; built about 1360 [253]
  (From Rickman's 'Gothic Architecture,' 7th edition, by J. H. Parker)
• Gold noble of Edward III. [255]
  (From an original example)
• Effigy of Edward the Black Prince; from his tomb at Canterbury [256]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester 1367-1404; from his tomb at Winchester [260]
  (From Murray's 'Handbook to the Southern Cathedrals')
• Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster abbey [263]
  (From Blore's 'Monumental Remains')
• Figures of Edward the Black Prince and Lionel duke of Clarence; from the tomb of Edward III. [264]
  (From Hollis's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Richard II. and his first queen, Anne of Bohemia; from their tomb in Westminster abbey [267]
  (From Hollis's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer [270]
  (From Harl MS. 4866)
• A gentleman riding out with his hawk [271]
• Carrying corn, a cart going uphill [272]
• State carriage of the fourteenth century [273]
• Bear-baiting [275]
  (From the Luttrell Psalter, 'Vetusta Monumenta')
• West end of the nave of Winchester cathedral church [276]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)
• Meeting of Henry of Lancaster and Richard II. at Flint [284]
• Henry of Lancaster claiming the throne [285]
  (From Harl MS. 1319)
• Effigy of a knight at Clehonger, showing development of plate armour; date about 1400 [287]
  (From Hollis's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Henry IV. and his queen Joan of Navarre; from their tomb in Canterbury cathedral church [290]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Royal arms as borne from about 1408 to 1603 [291]
  (From a fifteenth-century seal)
• Thomas Cranley, archbishop of Dublin; from his brass at New College, Oxford, showing the archiepiscopal costume [292]
  (From Waller's 'Monumental Brasses')
• The Battle of Shrewsbury [294]
• Fight in the lists with poleaxes [297]
  (From Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. ff. 4 and 7)
• Costume of a judge about 1400; from a brass at Deerhurst [298]
  (From Waller's 'Monumental Brasses')
• Henry V. [300]
  (From an original portrait belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• 154. Effigy of William Phelip, lord Bardolph; from his tomb at Dennington, Suffolk [304]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Marriage of Henry V. and Catherine of France [305]
  (From Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 22)
• Henry VI. [308]
  (From an original picture in the National Portrait Gallery)
• Fotheringay church, Northamptonshire; begun in 1434 [311]
  (From a photograph by G. A. Nichols, Stamford)
• 159. Front and back views of the gilt-latten effigy of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, died 1439; from his tomb at Warwick [314], [315]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Tattershall castle, Lincolnshire; built between 1433 and 1455 [316]
  (From a photograph by G. A. Nichols, Stamford)
• Part of Winfield manor-house, Derbyshire; built about 1440 [318]
  (From a photograph by R. Keene, Derby)
• The Divinity School, Oxford; built between 1445 and 1454 [319]
  (From a photograph by W. H. Wheeler, Oxford)
• A sea-fight [325]
  (From Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 18 b)
• Effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G., showing armour worn from about 1445 to 1480 [326]
  (From Stothard's 'Monumental Effigies')
• Edward IV. [330]
  (From an original portrait belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• A fifteenth-century ship [333]
  (From Harl. MS. 2278, f. 16)
• Large ship and boat of the fifteenth century [339]
  (From Cott. MS. Julius E. iv. f. 5)
• Richard III. [341]
  (From an original portrait belonging to the Society of Antiquaries)
• Henry VII. [344]
• Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII. [345]
  (From original pictures in the National Portrait Gallery)
• Tudor Rose; from the chapel of Henry VII., Westminster [346]
• Tower of St. Mary's church, Taunton; built about 1500 [353]
  (From Britton's 'Architectural Antiquities')
• King's College Chapel, Cambridge; interior, looking east [355]
  (From a photograph by Valentine & Sons, Dundee)

GENEALOGICAL TABLES

I
ENGLISH KINGS FROM ECGBERHT TO HENRY I.

II
GENEALOGY OF THE NORMAN DUKES AND OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND FROM THE CONQUEST TO HENRY VII.

III
GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND FROM DUNCAN I. TO JAMES IV.

IV
GENEALOGY OF THE KINGS OF FRANCE FROM HUGH CAPET TO LOUIS XII.

SHORTER AND SOMETIMES MORE DETAILED GENEALOGIES
will be found in the following pages.

• PAGE
• Genealogy of the principal Northumbrian kings [41]
• " "English kings from Ecgberht to Eadgar [56]
• " "English kings from Eadgar to Eadgar the Ætheling [78]
• " "Danish kings [83]
• Genealogical connection between the Houses of England and Normandy [84]
• Genealogy of the Mercian Earls [85]
• " "family of Godwine [89]
• " "Conqueror's sons and children [131]
• " "sons and grandchildren of Henry II. [156]
• " "John's sons and grandsons [208]
• " "claimants of the Scottish throne [216]
• " "more important sons of Edward III. [265]
• " "claimants of the throne in 1399 [286]
• " "kings of Scotland from Robert Bruce to James I. [295]
• " "Nevills [324]
• " "Houses of Lancaster and York [327]
• " "Beauforts and Tudors [335]
• " "House of York [337]
• " "Woodvilles and Greys [338]
• Abbreviated genealogy of Henry VII. and his competitors [344]
• Genealogy of the Houses of Spain and Burgundy [349]

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

PART I.
ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER I.
PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN BRITAIN.

LEADING DATES

• Cæsar's first invasion B.C. 55
• Invasion of Aulus Plautius A.D. 43
• Recall of Agricola 84
• Severus in Britain 208
• End of the Roman Government 410

Palæolithic flint scraper from Icklingham, Suffolk. (Evans.)

1. Palæolithic Man of the River-Drift.—Countless ages ago, there was a period of time to which geologists have given the name of the Pleistocene Age. The part of the earth's surface afterwards called Britain was then attached to the Continent, so that animals could pass over on dry land. The climate was much colder than it is now, and it is known from the bones which have been dug up that the country was inhabited by wolves, bears, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and other creatures now extinct. No human remains have been found amongst these bones, but there is no doubt that men existed contemporaneously with their deposit, because, in the river drift, or gravel washed down by rivers, there have been discovered flints sharpened by chipping, which can only have been produced by the hand of man. The men who used them are known as Palæolithic, or the men of ancient stone, because these stone implements are rougher and therefore older than others which have been discovered. These Palæolithic men of the river drift were a race of stunted savages who did not cultivate the ground, but lived on the animals which they killed, and must have had great difficulty in procuring food, as they did not know how to make handles for their sharpened flints, and must therefore have had to hold them in their hands.

Palæolithic flint implement from Hoxne, Suffolk.

2. Cave-dwelling Palæolithic Man.—This race was succeeded by another which dwelt in caves. They, as well as their predecessors, are known as Palæolithic men, as their weapons were still very rude. As, however, they had learnt to make handles for them, they could construct arrows, harpoons, and javelins. They also made awls and needles of stone; and, what is more remarkable, they possessed a decided artistic power, which enabled them to indicate by a few vigorous scratches the forms of horses, mammoths, reindeer, and other animals. Vast heaps of rubbish still exist in various parts of Europe, which are found to consist of the bones, shells, and other refuse thrown out by these later Palæolithic men, who had no reverence for the dead, casting out the bodies of their relations to decay with as little thought as they threw away oyster-shells or reindeer-bones. Traces of Palæolithic men of this type have been found as far north as Derbyshire. Their descendants are no longer be met with in these islands. The Eskimos of the extreme north of America, however, have the same artistic faculty and the same disregard for the dead, and it has therefore been supposed that the cave-dwelling men were of the race to which the modern Eskimos belong.

Engraved bone from Cresswell Crags, Derbyshire, now in the British Museum (full size).

Neolithic flint arrow-head from Rudstone, Yorks. (Evans.)

Neolithic celt or cutting instrument from Guernsey. (Evans.)

Neolithic axe from Winterbourn Steepleton, Dorset. (Evans.)

3. Neolithic Man.—Ages passed away during which the climate became more temperate, and the earth's surface in these regions sank to a lower level. The seas afterwards known as the North Sea and the English Channel flowed over the depression; and an island was thus formed out of land which had once been part of the continent. After this process had taken place, a third race appeared, which must have crossed the sea in rafts or canoes, and which took the place of the Palæolithic men. They are known as Neolithic, or men of the new stone age, because their stone implements were of a newer kind, being polished and more efficient than those of their predecessors. They had, therefore, the advantage of superior weapons, and perhaps of superior strength, and were able to overpower those whom they found in the island. With their stone axes they made clearings in the woods in which to place their settlements. They brought with them domestic animals, sheep and goats, dogs and pigs. They spun thread with spindle and distaff, and wove it into cloth upon a loom. They grew corn and manufactured a rude kind of pottery. Each tribe lived in a state of war with its neighbours. A tribe when attacked in force took shelter on the hills in places of refuge, which were surrounded by lofty mounds and ditches. Many of these places of refuge are still to be seen, as, for instance, the one which bears the name of Maiden Castle, near Dorchester. On the open hills, too, are still to be found the long barrows which the Neolithic men raised over the dead. There is little doubt that these men, whose way of life was so superior to that of their Eskimo-like predecessors, were of the race now known as Iberian, which at one time inhabited a great part of Western Europe, but which has since mingled with other races. The Basques of the Pyrenees are the only Iberians who still preserve anything like purity of descent, though even the Basques have in them blood the origin of which is not Iberian.

Early British Pottery.

Early British Pottery.

4. Celts and Iberians.—The Iberians were followed by a swarm of new-comers called Celts. The Celts belong to a group of races sometimes known as the Aryan group, to which also belong Teutons, Slavonians, Italians, Greeks, and the chief ancient races of Persia and India. The Celts were the first to arrive in the West, where they seized upon lands in Spain, in Gaul, and in Britain, which the Iberians had occupied before them. They did not, however, destroy the Iberians altogether. However careful a conquering tribe maybe to preserve the purity of its blood, it rarely succeeds in doing so. The conquerors are sure to preserve some of the men of the conquered race as slaves, and a still larger number of young and comely women who become the mothers of their children. In time the slaves and the children learn to speak the language of their masters or fathers. Thus every European population is derived from many races.

Bronze celt from the Isle of Harty, Kent (½).

5. The Celts in Britain.—The Celts were fair-haired and taller than the Iberians, whom they conquered or displaced. They had the advantage of being possessed of weapons of bronze, for which even the polished stone weapons of the Iberians were no match. They burned instead of burying their dead, and raised over the ashes those round barrows which are still to be found intermingled with the long barrows of the Iberians.

Bronze lance-head found in Ireland.

Bronze caldron found in Ireland.

6. Goidels and Britons.—The earliest known name given to this island was Albion. It is uncertain whether the word is of Celtic or of Iberian origin. The later name Britain is derived from a second swarm of Celts called Brythons or Britons, who after a long interval followed the first Celtic immigration. The descendants of these first immigrants are distinguished from the new-comers by the name of Goidels, and it is probable that they were at one time settled in Britain as well as in Ireland, and that they were pushed across the sea into Ireland by the stronger and more civilised Britons. At all events, when history begins Goidels were only to be found in Ireland, though at a later time they colonised a part of what is now known as Scotland, and sent some offshoots into Wales. At present the languages derived from that of the Goidels are the Gaelic of the Highlands, the Manx of the Isle of Man, and the Erse of Ireland. The only language now spoken in the British Isles which is derived from that of the Britons is the Welsh; but the old Cornish language, which was spoken nearly up to the close of the eighteenth century, came from the same stock. It is therefore likely that the Britons pushed the Goidels northward and westward, as the Goidels had formerly pushed the Iberians in the same directions. It was most likely that the Britons erected the huge stone circle of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, though it is not possible to speak with certainty. That of Avebury is of an earlier date and uncertain origin. Both were probably intended to serve as monuments of the dead, though it is sometimes supposed that they were also used as temples.

View of Stonehenge. (From a photograph.)

7. Phœnicians and Greeks.—The most civilised nations of the ancient world were those which dwelt round the Mediterranean Sea. It was long supposed that the Phœnicians came to Britain from the coast of Syria, or from their colonies at Carthage and in the south of Spain, for the tin which they needed for the manufacture of bronze. The peninsula of Devon and Cornwall is the only part of the island which produces tin, and it has therefore been thought that the Cassiterides, or tin islands, which the Phœnicians visited, were to be found in that region. It has, however, been recently shown that the Cassiterides were most probably off the coast of Galicia, in Spain, and the belief that Phœnicians visited Britain for tin must therefore be considered to be very doubtful. The first educated visitor who reached Britain was Pytheas, a Greek, who was sent by the merchants of the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseilles) about 330 B.C. to make discoveries which might lead to the opening across Gaul of a trade-route between Britain and their city. It was probably in consequence of the information which he carried to Massalia on his return that there sprang up a trade in British tin. Another Greek, Posidonius, who came to Britain about two centuries after Pytheas, found this trade in full working order. The tin was brought by land from the present Devon or Cornwall to an island called Ictis, which was only accessible on foot after the tide had ebbed. This island was probably Thanet, which was in those days cut off from the mainland by an arm of the sea which could be crossed on foot at low water. From Thanet the tin was carried into Gaul across the straits, and was then conveyed in waggons to the Rhone to be floated down to the Mediterranean.

8. Gauls and Belgians in Britain.—During the time when this trade was being carried on, tribes of Gauls and Belgians landed in Britain. The Gauls were certainly, and the Belgians probably, of the same Celtic race as that which already occupied the island. The Gauls settled on the east coast as far as the Fens and the Wash, whilst the Belgians occupied the south coast, and pushed northwards towards the Somerset Avon. Nothing is known of the relations between the new-comers and the older Celtic inhabitants. Most likely those who arrived last contented themselves with mastering those whom they defeated, without attempting to exterminate them. At all events, states of some extent were formed by the conquerors. Thus the Cantii occupied the open ground to the north of the great forest which then filled the valley between the chalk ranges of the North and South Downs; the Trinobantes dwelt between the Lea and the Essex Stour; the Iceni occupied the peninsula between the Fens and the sea which was afterwards known as East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk); and the Catuvellauni dwelt to the west of the Trinobantes, spreading over the modern Hertfordshire and the neighbouring districts.

Part of a British gold corselet found at Mold.

9. Culture and War.—Though there were other states in Britain, the tribes which have been named had the advantage of being situated on the south-eastern part of the island, and therefore of being in commercial communication with the continental Gauls of their own race and language. Trade increased, and brought with it the introduction of some things which the Britons would not have invented for themselves. For instance, the inhabitants of the south-east of Britain began to use gold coins and decorations in imitation of those which were then common in Gaul. Yet, in spite of these improvements, even the most civilised Britons were still in a rude and barbarous condition. They had no towns, but dwelt in scattered huts. When they were hard pressed by an enemy they took refuge in an open space cleared in the woods, and surrounded by a high earthwork crowned by a palisade and guarded by felled trees. When they went out to battle they dyed their faces in order to terrify their enemies. Their warriors made use of chariots, dashing in them along the front of the enemy's line till they espied an opening in his ranks. They then leapt down and charged on foot into the gap. Their charioteers in the meanwhile drove off the horses to a safe distance, so as to be ready to take up their comrades if the battle went against them.

10. Religion of the Britons.—The Celtic races worshipped many gods. In Gaul, the Druids, who were the ministers of religion, taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and even gave moral instruction to the young. In Ireland, and perhaps in Britain, they were conjurers and wizards. Both in Gaul and Britain they kept up the traditional belief which had once been prevalent in all parts of the world, that the gods could only be appeased by human sacrifices. It was supposed that they needed either to drink human blood or to be supplied with human slaves, and that the only way to give them what they wanted was to despatch as many human beings as possible into the other world. The favourite way of doing this was to construct a huge wicker basket in the shape of a man, to cram it with men and women, and to set it on fire. At other times a Druid would cut open a single human victim, and would imagine that he could foretell the future by inspecting the size and appearance of the entrails.

Julius Cæsar. (From a bust in the British Museum.)

11. The Romans in Gaul. B.C. 55.—In the year 55 B.C. the Celts of south-eastern Britain first came in contact with a Roman army. The Romans were a civilised people, and had been engaged for some centuries in conquering the peoples living round the Mediterranean. They possessed disciplined armies, and a regular government. By the beginning of the year the Roman general, Gaius Julius Cæsar, had made himself master of Gaul. Then, after driving back with enormous slaughter two German tribes which had invaded Gaul, he crossed the Rhine, not because he wished to conquer Germany, but because he wished to strike terror into the Germans in order to render them unwilling to renew their attack. This march into Germany seems to have suggested to Cæsar the idea of invading Britain. It is most unlikely that he thought of conquering the island, as he had quite enough to do in Gaul. What he really wanted was to prevent the Britons from coming to the help of their kindred whom he had just subdued, and he would accomplish this object best by landing on their shores and showing them how formidable a Roman army was.

12. Cæsar's First Invasion. B.C. 55.—Accordingly, towards the end of August, Cæsar crossed the straits with about 10,000 men. There is some uncertainty about the place of his landing, but he probably first appeared off the spot at which Dover now stands, and then, being alarmed at the number of the Britons who had crowded to defend the coast, made his way by sea to the site of the modern Deal. There, too, his landing was opposed, but he managed to reach the shore with his army. He soon found, however, that the season was too advanced to enable him to accomplish anything. A storm having damaged his shipping and driven off the transports on which was embarked his cavalry, he returned to Gaul.

13. Cæsar's Second Invasion. B.C. 54—Cæsar had hitherto failed to strike terror into the Britons. In the following year he started in July, so as to have many weeks of fine weather before him, taking with him as many as 25,000 foot and 2,000 horse. After effecting a landing he pushed inland to the Kentish Stour, where he defeated the natives and captured one of their stockades. Good soldiers as the Romans were, they were never quite at home on the sea, and Cæsar was recalled to the coast by the news that the waves had dashed to pieces a large number of his ships. As soon as he had repaired the damage he resumed his march. His principal opponent was Cassivelaunus, the chief of the tribe of the Catuvellauni, who had subdued many of the neighbouring tribes, and whose stronghold was a stockade near the modern St. Albans. This chief and his followers harassed the march of the Romans with the rush of their chariots. If Cassivelaunus could have counted upon the continued support of all his warriors, he might perhaps have succeeded in forcing Cæsar to retreat, as the country was covered with wood and difficult to penetrate. Many of the tribes, however, which now served under him longed to free themselves from his rule. First, the Trinobantes and then four other tribes broke away from him and sought the protection of Cæsar. Cæsar, thus encouraged, dashed at his stockade and carried it by storm. Cassivelaunus abandoned the struggle, gave hostages to Cæsar, and promised to pay a yearly tribute. On this Cæsar returned to Gaul. Though the tribute was never paid, he had gained his object. He had sufficiently frightened the British tribes to make it unlikely that they would give him any annoyance in Gaul.

14. South-eastern Britain after Cæsar's Departure. B.C. 54—A.D. 43.—For nearly a century after Cæsar's departure Britain was left to itself. The Catuvellauni recovered the predominance which they had lost. Their chieftain, Cunobelin, the original of Shakspere's Cymbeline, is thought to have been a grandson of Cassivelaunus. He established his power over the Trinobantes as well as over his own people, and made Camulodunum, the modern Colchester, his headquarters. Other tribes submitted to him as they had submitted to his grandfather. The prosperity of the inhabitants of south-eastern Britain increased more rapidly than the prosperity of their ancestors had increased before Cæsar's invasion. Traders continued to flock over from Gaul, bringing with them a knowledge of the arts and refinements of civilised life, and those arts and refinements were far greater now that Gaul was under Roman rule than they had been when its Celtic tribes were still independent. Yet, in spite of the growth of trade, Britain was still a rude and barbarous country. Its exports were but cattle and hides, corn, slaves, and hunting dogs, together with a few dusky pearls.

15. The Roman Empire.—The Roman state was now a monarchy. The Emperor was the head of the army, as well as the head of the state. Though he was often a cruel oppressor of the wealthy personages who lived in Rome itself, and whose rivalry he feared, he, for the most part, sought to establish his power by giving justice to the provinces which had once been conquered by Rome, but were now admitted to share in the advantages of good government which the Empire had to give. One consequence of the conquest of nations by Rome was that there was now an end to cruel wars between hostile tribes. An army was stationed on the frontier of the Empire to defend it against barbarian attacks. In the interior the Roman peace, as it was called, prevailed, and there was hardly any need of soldiers to keep order and to maintain obedience.

16. The Invasion of Aulus Plautius. A.D. 43.—One question which each Emperor had to ask himself was whether he would attempt to enlarge the limits of the Empire or not. For a time each Emperor had resolved to be content with the frontier which Cæsar had left. There had consequently for many years been no thought of again invading Britain. At last the Emperor Claudius reversed this policy. There is reason to suppose that some of the British chiefs had made an attack upon the coasts of Gaul. However this may have been, Claudius in 43 sent Aulus Plautius against Togidumnus and Caratacus, the sons of Cunobelin, who were now ruling in their father's stead. Where one tribe has gained supremacy over others, it is always easy for a civilised power to gain allies amongst the tribes which have been subdued. Cæsar had overpowered Cassivelaunus by enlisting on his side the revolted Trinobantes, and Aulus Plautius now enlisted on his side the Regni, who dwelt in the present Sussex, and the Iceni, who dwelt in the present Norfolk and Suffolk. With their aid, Aulus Plautius, at the head of 40,000 men, defeated the sons of Cunobelin. Togidumnus was slain, and Caratacus driven into exile. The Romans then took possession of their lands, and, stepping into their place, established over the tribes chieftains who were now dependent on the Emperor instead of on Togidumnus and Caratacus. Claudius himself came for a brief visit to receive the congratulations of the army on the victory which his lieutenant had won. Aulus Plautius remained in Britain till 47. Before he left it the whole of the country to the south of a line drawn from the Wash to some point on the Severn had been subjugated. The mines of the Mendips and of the western peninsula were too tempting to be left unconquered, and it is probably their attraction which explains the extension of Roman power at so early a date over the hilly country in the west.

17. The Colony of Camulodunum.—In 47 Aulus Plautius was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula. He disarmed the tribes dwelling to the west of the Trent, whilst he attempted to establish the Roman authority more firmly over those whose territory lay to the east of that river. Amongst these later were the Iceni, who had been hitherto allowed to preserve their native government in dependence on the Roman power. The consequence was that they rose in arms. Ostorius overpowered them, and then sought to strengthen his hold upon the south-east of Britain by founding (51) a Roman colony at Camulodunum, which had formerly been the headquarters of Cunobelin. Roman settlers—for the most part discharged soldiers—established themselves in the new city, bringing with them all that belonged to Roman life with all its conveniences and luxuries. Roman temples, theatres, and baths quickly rose, and Ostorius might fairly expect that in Britain, as in Gaul, the native chiefs would learn to copy the easy life of the new citizens, and would settle their quarrels in Roman courts of law instead of taking arms on their own behalf.

18. The Conquests of Ostorius Scapula.—Ostorius, however, was soon involved in fresh troubles. Nothing is more difficult for a civilised power than to guard a frontier against barbarous tribes. Such tribes are accustomed to plunder one another, and they are quick to perceive that the order and peace which a civilised power establishes offers them a richer booty than is to be found elsewhere. The tribes beyond the line which Ostorius held were constantly breaking through to plunder the Roman territory, and he soon found that he must either allow the lands of Roman subjects to be plundered, or must carry war amongst the hostile tribes. He naturally chose the latter alternative, and the last years of his government were spent in wars with the Ordovices of Central Wales, and with the Silures of Southern Wales. The Silures were not only a most warlike people, but they were led by Caratacus, who had taken refuge with them after his defeat by Aulus Plautius in the east. The mountainous region which these two tribes defended made it difficult to subdue them, and though Caratacus was defeated (50), and ultimately captured and sent as a prisoner to Rome, Ostorius did not succeed in effectually mastering his hardy followers. The proof of his comparative failure lies in the fact that he established strong garrison towns along the frontier of the hilly region, which he would not have done unless he had considered it necessary to have a large number of soldiers ready to check any possible rising. At the northern end of the line was Deva (Chester), at the southern was Isca Silurum (Caerleon upon Usk) and in each of which was placed a whole legion, about 5,000 men. Between them was the smaller post of Uriconium, or more properly Viriconium (Wroxeter), the city of the Wrekin.

19. Government of Suetonius Paullinus. 58.—When Suetonius Paullinus arrived to take up the government, he resolved to complete the conquest of the west by an attack on Mona (Anglesey). In Mona was a sacred place of the Druids, who gave encouragement to the still independent Britons by their murderous sacrifices and their soothsayings. When Suetonius attempted to land (61), a rabble of women, waving torches and shrieking defiance, rushed to meet him on the shore. Behind them the Druids stood calling down on the intruders the vengeance of the gods. At first the soldiers were terrified and shrunk back. Then they recovered courage, and put to the sword or thrust into the flames the priests and their female rout. The Romans were tolerant of the religion of the peoples whom they subdued, but they could not put up with the continuance of a cruel superstition whose upholders preached resistance to the Roman government.

20. Boadicea's Insurrection. 61.—At the very moment of success Suetonius was recalled hurriedly to the east. Roman officers and traders had misused the power which had been given them by the valour of Roman soldiers. Might had been taken for right, and the natives were stripped of their lands and property at the caprice of the conquerors. Those of the natives to whom anything was left were called upon to pay a taxation far too heavy for their means. When money was not to be found to satisfy the tax-gatherer, a Roman usurer was always at hand to proffer the required sum at enormous interest, after which the unhappy borrower who accepted the proposal soon found himself unable to pay the debt, and was stripped of all that he possessed to satisfy the cravings of the lender. Those who resisted this oppression were treated as the meanest criminals. Boadicea, the widow of Prasutagus, who had been the chief of the Iceni, was publicly flogged, and her two daughters were subjected to the vilest outrage. She called upon the whole Celtic population of the east and south to rise against the foreign tyrants. Thousands answered to her call, and the angry host rushed to take vengeance upon the colonists of Camulodunum. The colonists had neglected to fortify their city, and the insurgents, bursting in, slew by the sword or by torture men and women alike. The massacre spread wherever Romans were to be found. A Roman legion hastening to the rescue was routed, and the small force of cavalry attached to it alone succeeded in making its escape. Every one of the foot soldiers was slaughtered on the spot. It is said that 70,000 Romans perished in the course of a few days.

21. The Vengeance of Suetonius.—Suetonius was no mean general, and he hastened back to the scene of destruction. He called on the commander of the legion at Isca Silurum to come to his help. Cowardice was rare in a Roman army, but this officer was so unnerved by terror that he refused to obey the orders of his general, and Suetonius had to march without him. He won a decisive victory at some unknown spot, probably not far from Camulodunum, and 80,000 Britons are reported to have been slain by the triumphant soldiery. Boadicea committed suicide by poison. The commander of the legion at Isca Silurum also put an end to his own life, in order to escape the punishment which he deserved. Suetonius had restored the Roman authority in Britain, but it was to his failure to control his subordinates that the insurrection had been due, and he was therefore promptly recalled by the Emperor Nero. From that time no more is heard of the injustice of the Roman government.

22. Agricola in Britain. 78—84.—Agricola, who arrived as governor in 78, took care to deal fairly with all sorts of men, and to make the natives thoroughly satisfied with his rule. He completed the conquest of the country afterwards known as Wales, and thereby pushed the western frontier of Roman Britain to the sea. Yet from the fact that he found it necessary still to leave garrisons at Deva and Isca Silurum, it may be gathered that the tribes occupying the hill country were not so thoroughly subdued as to cease to be dangerous. Although the idea entertained by Ostorius of making a frontier on land towards the west had thus been abandoned, it was still necessary to provide a frontier towards the north. Even before Agricola arrived it had been shown to be impossible to stop at the line between the Mersey and the Humber. Beyond that line was the territory of the Brigantes, who had for some time occupied the position which in the first years of the Roman conquest had been occupied by the Iceni—that is to say, they were in friendly dependence upon Rome, without being actually controlled by Roman authority. Before Agricola's coming disputes had arisen with them, and Roman soldiers had occupied their territory. Agricola finished the work of conquest. He now governed the whole of the country as far north as to the Solway and the Tyne, and he made Eboracum, the name of which changed in course of time into York, the centre of Roman power in the northern districts. A garrison was established there to watch for any danger which might come from the extreme north, as the garrisons of Deva and Isca Silurum watched for dangers which might come from the west.

23. Agricola's Conquests in the North.—Agricola thought that there would be no real peace unless the whole island was subdued. For seven years he carried on warfare with this object before him. He had comparatively little difficulty in reducing to obedience the country south of the narrow isthmus which separates the estuary of the Clyde from the estuary of the Forth. Before proceeding further he drew a line of forts across that isthmus to guard the conquered country from attack during his absence. He then made his way to the Tay, but he had not marched far up the valley of that river before he reached the edge of the Highlands. The Caledonians, as the Romans then called the inhabitants of those northern regions, were a savage race, and the mountains in the recesses of which they dwelt were rugged and inaccessible, offering but little means of support to a Roman army. In 84 the Caledonians, who, like all barbarians when they first come in contact with a civilised people, were ignorant of the strength of a disciplined army, came down from their fortresses in the mountains into the lower ground. A battle was fought near the Graupian Hill, which seems to have been situated at the junction of the Isla and the Tay. Agricola gained a complete victory, but he was unable to follow the fugitives into their narrow glens, and he contented himself with sending his fleet to circumnavigate the northern shores of the island, so as to mark out the limits of the land which he still hoped to conquer. Before the fleet returned, however, he was recalled by the Emperor Domitian. It has often been said that Domitian was jealous of his success; but it is possible that the Emperor really thought that the advantage to be gained by the conquest of rugged mountains would be more than counterbalanced by the losses which would certainly be incurred in consequence of the enormous difficulty of the task.

Commemorative tablet of the Second Legion found at Halton Chesters on the Roman Wall.

24. The Roman Walls.—Agricola, in addition to his line of forts between the Forth and the Clyde, had erected detached forts at the mouth of the valleys which issue from the Highlands, in order to hinder the Caledonians from plundering the lower country. In 119 the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain. He was more disposed to defend the Empire than to extend it, and though he did not abandon Agricola's forts, he also built further south a continuous stone wall between the Solway and the Tyne. This wall, which, together with an earthwork of earlier date, formed a far stronger line of defence than the more northern forts, was intended to serve as a second barrier to keep out the wild Caledonians if they succeeded in breaking through the first. At a later time a lieutenant of the Emperor, Antoninus Pius, who afterwards became Emperor himself, connected Agricola's forts between the Forth and Clyde by a continuous earthwork. In 208 the Emperor Severus arrived in Britain, and after strengthening still further the earthwork between the Forth and Clyde, he attempted to carry out the plans of Agricola by conquering the land of the Caledonians. Severus, however, failed as completely as Agricola had failed before him, and he died soon after his return to Eboracum.

View of part of the Roman Wall.

Ruins of a Turret on the Roman Wall.

Part of the Roman Wall at Leicester.

Pediment of a Roman temple found at Bath.

25. The Roman Province of Britain.—Very little is known of the history of the Roman province of Britain, except that it made considerable progress in civilisation. The Romans were great road-makers, and though their first object was to enable their soldiers to march easily from one part of the country to another, they thereby encouraged commercial intercourse. Forests were to some extent cleared away by the sides of the new roads, and fresh ground was thrown open to tillage. Mines were worked and country houses built, the remains of which are in some places still to be seen, and bear testimony to the increased well-being of a population which, excepting in the south-eastern part of the island, had at the arrival of the Romans been little removed from savagery. Cities sprang up in great numbers. Some of them were at first garrison towns, like Eboracum, Deva, and Isca Silurum. Others, like Verulamium, near the present St. Albans, occupied the sites of the old stockades once used as places of refuge by the Celts, or, like Lindum, on the top of the hill on which Lincoln Cathedral now stands, were placed in strongly defensible positions. Aquæ Sulis, the modern Bath, owes its existence to its warm medicinal springs. The chief port of commerce was Londinium, the modern London. Attempts which have been made to explain its name by the Celtic language have failed, and it is therefore possible that an inhabited post existed there even before the Celts arrived. Its importance was, however, owing to its position, and that importance was not of a kind to tell before a settled system of commercial intercourse sprang up. London was situated on the hill on which St. Paul's now stands. There first, after the Thames narrowed into a river, the merchant found close to the stream hard ground on which he could land his goods. The valley for some distance above and below it was then filled with a wide marsh or an expanse of water. An old track raised above the marsh crossed the river by a ford at Lambeth, but, as London grew in importance, a ferry was established where London Bridge now stands, and the Romans, in course of time, superseded the ferry by a bridge. It is, therefore, no wonder that the Roman roads both from the north and from the south converged upon London. Just as Eboracum was a fitting centre for military operations directed to the defence of the northern frontier, London was the fitting centre of a trade carried on with the Continent, and the place would increase in importance in proportion to the increase of that trade.

Roman altar from Rutchester.

26. Extinction of Tribal Antagonism.—The improvement of communications and the growth of trade and industry could not fail to influence the mind of the population. Wars between tribes, which before the coming of the Romans had been the main employment of the young and hardy, were now things of the past. The mutual hatred which had grown out of them had died away, and even the very names of Trinobantes and Brigantes were almost forgotten. Men who lived in the valley of the Severn came to look upon themselves as belonging to the same people as men who lived in the valleys of the Trent or the Thames. The active and enterprising young men were attracted to the cities, at first by the novelty of the luxurious habits in which they were taught to indulge, but afterwards because they were allowed to take part in the management of local business. In the time of the Emperor Caracalla, the son of Severus, every freeman born in the Empire was declared to be a Roman citizen, and long before that a large number of natives had been admitted to citizenship. In each district a council was formed of the wealthier and more prominent inhabitants, and this council had to provide for the building of temples, the holding of festivals, the erection of fortifications, and the laying out of streets. Justice was done between man and man according to the Roman law, which was the best law that the world had seen, and the higher Roman officials, who were appointed by the Emperor, took care that justice was done between city and city. No one therefore, wished to oppose the Roman government or to bring back the old times of barbarism.

27. Want of National Feeling.—Great as was the progress made, there was something still wanting. A people is never at its best unless those who compose it have some object for which they can sacrifice themselves, and for which, if necessary, they will die. The Briton had ceased to be called upon to die for his tribe, and he was not expected to die for Britain. Britain had become a more comfortable country to live in, but it was not the business of its own inhabitants to guard it. It was a mere part of the vast Roman Empire, and it was the duty of the Emperors to see that the frontier was safely kept. They were so much afraid lest any particular province should wish to set up for itself and to break away from the Empire, that they took care not to employ soldiers born in that province for its protection. They sent British recruits to guard the Danube or the Euphrates, and Gauls, Spaniards, or Africans to guard the wall between the Solway and the Tyne, and the entrenchment between the Forth and the Clyde. Britons, therefore, looked on their own defence as something to be done for them by the Emperors, not as something to be done by themselves. They lived on friendly terms with one another, but they had nothing of what we now call patriotism.

28. Carausius and Allectus. 288—296.—In 288 Carausius, with the help of some pirates, seized on the government of Britain and threw off the authority of the Emperor. He was succeeded by Allectus, yet neither Carausius nor Allectus thought of making himself the head of a British nation. They called themselves Emperors and ruled over Britain alone, merely because they could not get more to rule over.

29. Constantius and Constantine. 296—337.—Allectus was overthrown and slain by Constantius, who, however, did not rule, as Carausius and Allectus had done, by mere right of military superiority. The Emperor Diocletian (285—305) discovered that the whole Empire, stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, was too extensive for one man to govern, and he therefore decreed that there should in future be four governors, two principal ones named Emperors (Augusti), and two subordinate ones named Cæsars. Constantius was first a Cæsar and afterwards an Emperor. He was set to govern Spain, Gaul, and Britain, but he afterwards became Emperor himself, and for some time established himself at Eboracum (York). Upon his death (306), his son Constantine, after much fighting, made himself sole Emperor (325), overthrowing the system of Diocletian. Yet in one respect he kept up Diocletian's arrangements. He placed Spain, Gaul, and Britain together under a great officer called a Vicar, who received orders from himself and who gave orders to the officers who governed each of the three countries. Under the new system, as under the old, Britain was not treated as an independent country. It had still to look for protection to an officer who lived on the Continent, and was therefore apt to be more interested in Gaul and Spain than he was in Britain.

30. Christianity in Britain.—When the Romans put down the Druids and their bloody sacrifices, they called the old Celtic gods by Roman names, but made no further alteration in religious usages. Gradually, however, Christianity spread amongst the Romans on the Continent, and merchants or soldiers who came from the Continent introduced it into Britain. Scarcely anything is known of its progress in the island. Alban is said to have been martyred at Verulamium, and Julius and Aaron at Isca Silurum. In 314 three British bishops attended a council held at Arles in Gaul. Little more than these few facts have been handed down, but there is no doubt that there was a settled Church established in the island. The Emperor Constantine acknowledged Christianity as the religion of the whole Empire. The remains of a church of this period have recently been discovered at Silchester.

31. Weakness of the Empire.—The Roman Empire in the time of Constantine had the appearance rather than the reality of strength. Its taxation was very heavy, and there was no national enthusiasm to lead men to sacrifice themselves in its defence. Roman citizens became more and more unwilling to become soldiers at all, and the Roman armies were now mostly composed of barbarians. At the same time the barbarians outside the Empire were growing stronger, as the tribes often coalesced into wide confederacies for the purpose of attacking the Empire.

32. The Picts and Scots.—The assailants of Britain on the north and the west were the Picts and Scots. The Picts were the same as the Caledonians of the time of Agricola. We do not know why they had ceased to be called Caledonians. The usual derivation of their name from the Latin Pictus, said to have been given them because they painted their bodies, is inaccurate. Opinions differ whether they were Goidels with a strong Iberian strain, or Iberians with a Goidelic admixture. They were probably Iberians, and at all events they were more savage than the Britons had been before they were influenced by Roman civilisation. The Scots, who afterwards settled in what is now known as Scotland, at that time dwelt in Ireland. Whilst the Picts, therefore, assailed the Roman province by land, and strove, not always unsuccessfully, to break through the walls which defended its northern frontier, the Scots crossed the Irish Sea in light boats to plunder and slay before armed assistance could arrive.

33. The Saxons.—The Saxons, who were no less deadly enemies of the Roman government, were as fierce and restless as the Picts and Scots, and were better equipped and better armed. At a later time they established themselves in Britain as conquerors and settlers, and became the founders of the English nation; but at first they were only known as cruel and merciless pirates. In their long flat-bottomed vessels they swooped down upon some undefended part of the coast and carried off not only the property of wealthy Romans, but even men and women to be sold in the slave-market. The provincials who escaped related with peculiar horror how the Saxons were accustomed to torture to death one out of every ten of their captives as a sacrifice to their gods.

34. Origin of the Saxons.—The Saxons were the more dangerous because it was impossible for the Romans to reach them in their homes. They were men of Teutonic race, speaking one of the languages, afterwards known as Low German, which were once spoken in the whole of North Germany. The Saxon pirates were probably drawn from the whole of the sea coast stretching from the north of the peninsula of Jutland to the mouth of the Ems, and if so, there were amongst them Jutes, whose homes were in Jutland itself; Angles, who inhabited Schleswig and Holstein; and Saxons, properly so called, who dwelt about the mouth of the Elbe and further to the west. All these peoples afterwards took part in the conquest of southern Britain, and it is not unlikely that they all shared in the original piratical attacks. Whether this was the case or not, the pirates came from creeks and inlets outside the Roman Empire, whose boundary was the Rhine, and they could therefore only be successfully repressed by a power with a good fleet, able to seek out the aggressors in their own homes and to stop the mischief at its source.

35. The Roman Defence.—The Romans had always been weak at sea, and they were weaker now than they had been in earlier days. They were therefore obliged to content themselves with standing on the defensive. Since the time of Severus, Britain had been divided, for purposes of defence, into Upper and Lower Britain. Though there is no absolute certainty about the matter, it is probable that Upper Britain comprised the hill country of the west and north, and that Lower Britain was the south-eastern part of the island, marked off by a line drawn irregularly from the Humber to the Severn.[1] Lower Britain in the early days of the Roman conquest had been in no special need of military protection. In the fourth century it was exposed more than the rest of the island to the attacks of the Saxon pirates. Fortresses were erected between the Wash and Beachy Head at every point at which an inlet of the sea afforded an opening to an invader. The whole of this part of the coast became known as the Saxon Shore, because it was subjected to attacks from the Saxons, and a special officer known as the Count of the Saxon Shore was appointed to take charge of it. An officer known as the Duke of the Britains (Dux Britanniarum) commanded the armies of Upper Britain; whilst a third, who was a civilian, and superior in rank over the other two, was the Count of Britain, and had a general supervision of the whole country.

36. End of the Roman Government. 383—410.—In 383 Maximus, who was probably the Duke of the Britains, was proclaimed Emperor by his soldiers. If he could have contented himself with defending Britain, it would have mattered little whether he chose to call himself an Emperor or a Duke. Unhappily for the inhabitants of the island, not only did every successful soldier want to be an Emperor, but every Emperor wanted to govern the whole Empire. Maximus, therefore, instead of remaining in Britain, carried a great part of his army across the sea to attempt a conquest of Gaul and Spain. Neither he nor his soldiers ever returned, and in consequence the Roman garrison in the island was deplorably weakened. Early in the fifth century an irruption of barbarians gave full employment to the army which defended Gaul, so that it was impossible to replace the forces which had followed Maximus by fresh troops from the Continent. The Roman Empire was in fact breaking up. The defence of Britain was left to the soldiers who remained in the island, and in 409 they proclaimed a certain Constantine Emperor. Constantine, like Maximus, carried his soldiers across the Channel in pursuit of a wider empire than he could find in Britain. He was himself murdered, and his soldiers, like those of Maximus, did not return. In 410 the Britons implored the Emperor Honorius to send them help. Honorius had enough to do to ward off the attacks of barbarians nearer Rome, and announced to the Britons that they must provide for their own defence. From this time Britain ceased to form part of the Roman Empire.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER II.
THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

LEADING DATES

• Landing of the Jutes in Thanet A.D. 449?
• The West Saxons defeated at Mount Badon 520
• The West Saxons take Sorbiodunum 552
• Battle of Deorham 577
• The West Saxons defeated at Faddiley 584

1. Britain after the Departure of the Romans. 410—449?—After the departure of the Romans, the Picts from the north and the Scots from Ireland continued their ravages, but though they caused terrible misery by slaughtering or dragging into slavery the inhabitants of many parts of the country, they did not succeed in making any permanent conquests. The Britons were not without a government and an armed force; and their later history shows that they were capable of carrying on war for a long time against enemies more formidable than the Picts and Scots. Their rulers were known by the British title Gwledig, and probably held power in different parts of the island as the successors of the Roman Duke of the Britains and of the Roman Count of the Saxon Shore. Their power of resistance to the Picts and the Scots was, however, weakened by the impossibility of turning their undivided attention to these marauders, as at the same time that they had, to defend the Roman Wall and the western coast against the Picts and Scots, they were exposed on the eastern coast to the attacks of the Saxon pirates.

2. The Groans of the Britons.—In their misery the thoughts of the Britons turned to those Roman legions who had defended their fathers so well. In 446 they appealed to Aëtius, the commander of the Roman armies, to deliver them from their destroyers. "The groans of the Britons" was the title which they gave to their appeal to him. "The barbarians," they wrote, "drive us to the sea; the sea drives us back to the barbarians; between them we are exposed to two sorts of death: we are either slain or drowned." Aëtius had no men to spare, and he sent no help to the Britons. Before long the whole of Western Europe was overrun by barbarian tribes, the title of Emperor being retained only by the Roman Emperor who ruled from Constantinople over the East, his authority over the barbarians of the West being no more than nominal.

3. The Conquest of Kent. 449?—It had been the custom of the Roman Empire to employ barbarians as soldiers in their armies, and Vortigern, the British ruler, now followed that bad example. In or about 449 a band of Jutish sea-rovers landed at Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet. According to tradition their leaders were Hengist and Horsa, names signifying the horse and the mare, which were not very likely to have been borne by real warriors. Whatever may have been the names of the chiefs, Vortigern took them into his service against the Picts, giving them the Isle of Thanet as a dwelling-place for themselves. With their help he defeated the Picts, but afterwards found himself unable to defend himself against his fierce auxiliaries. Thanet was still cut off from the mainland by an arm of the sea, and the Jutes were strong enough to hold it against all assailants. Their numbers rapidly increased as shiploads of their fellows landed, and they crossed the strait to win fresh lands from the Britons on the mainland of Kent. In several battles Vortigern was overpowered. His rival and successor, Ambrosius Aurelianus, whose name makes it probable that he was an upholder of the old Roman discipline, drove back the Jutes in turn. He did not long keep the upper hand, and in 465 he was routed utterly. The defeat of the British army was followed by an attack upon the great fortresses which had been erected along the Saxon Shore in the Roman times. The Jutes had no means of carrying them by assault, but they starved them out one by one, and some twenty-three years after their first landing, the whole of the coast of Kent was in their hands.

4. The South Saxons. 477.—The conquests of the Jutes stopped at the inlet of the sea now filled by Romney Marsh. To the south and west was the impenetrable Andred's Wood, which covered what is now known as the Weald. At its eastern extremity stood by the sea the strong fortified town of Anderida, which gave its name to the wood, the most westerly of the fortresses of the Saxon Shore still unconquered by the Jutes. It was at last endangered by a fresh pirate band—not of Jutes but of Saxons—which landed near Selsey, and fought its way eastwards, conquering the South Downs and the flat land between the South Downs and the sea, till it reached Anderida. Anderida was starved out after a long blockade, and the Saxons, bursting in, 'slew all that dwelt therein, nor was there henceforth one Briton left.' To this day the Roman walls of Anderida stand round the site of the desolated city near the modern Pevensey. Its Saxon conquerors came to be known as the South Saxons, and their land as Sussex.

5. The West Saxons and the East Saxons.—Another swarm also of Saxons, called Gewissas, landed on the shore of Southampton Water. After a time they were reinforced by a body of Jutes, and though the Jutes formed settlements of their own in the Isle of Wight and on the mainland, the difference of race and language between them and the Gewissas was not enough to prevent the two tribes from coalescing. Ultimately Gewissas and Jutes became known as West Saxons, and established themselves in a district roughly corresponding with the modern Hampshire. Then, having attempted to penetrate further west, they were defeated at Mount Badon, probably Badbury Rings in Dorsetshire. Their overthrow was so complete as to check their advance for more than thirty years. Whilst the coast line from the inlet of the sea now filled by Romney Marsh to the western edge of Hampshire had thus been mastered by Saxons, others of the same stock, known as East Saxons, seized upon the low coast to the north of the Thames. From them the land was called Essex. Neither Saxons nor Jutes, however, were as yet able to penetrate far up the valley of the Thames, as the Roman settlement of London, surrounded by marshes, still blocked the way.

6. The Anglian Settlements.—The coast-line to the north of the East Saxons was seized at some unascertained dates by different groups of Angles. The land between the Stour and the great fen which in those days stretched far inland from the Wash was occupied by two of these groups, known as the North folk and the South folk. They gave their names to Norfolk and Suffolk, and at some later time combined under the name of East Anglians. North of the Wash were the Lindiswara—that is to say, the settlers about the Roman Lindum, the modern Lincoln, and beyond them, stretching to the Humber, were the Gainas, from whom is derived the name of the modern Gainsborough. To the north of the Humber the coast was fringed by Angle settlements which had not yet coalesced into one.

7. Nature of the Conquest.—The three peoples who effected this conquest were afterwards known amongst themselves by the common name of English, a name which was originally equivalent to Angle, whilst amongst the whole of the remaining Celtic population they were only known as Saxons. The mode in which the English treated the Britons was very different from that of the Romans, who were a civilised people and aimed at governing a conquered race. The new-comers drove out the Britons in order to find homes for themselves, and they preferred to settle in the country rather than in a town. No Englishman had ever lived in a town in his German home, or was able to appreciate the advantages of the commerce and manufacture by which towns are supported. Nor were they inclined to allow the inhabitants of the Roman towns to remain unmolested in their midst. When Anderida was captured not a Briton escaped alive, and there is good reason to believe that many of the other towns fared no better, especially as the remains of some of them still show marks of the fire by which they were consumed. What took place in the country cannot be certainly known. Many of the British were no doubt killed. Many took refuge in fens or woods, or fled to those portions of the island in which their countrymen were still independent. It is difficult to decide to what extent the men who remained behind were spared, but it is impossible to doubt that a considerable number of women were preserved from slaughter. The conquerors, at their landing, must have been for the most part young men, and when they wanted wives, it would be far easier for them to seize the daughters of slain Britons than to fetch women from the banks of the Elbe.

8. The Cultivators of the Soil.—When the new-comers planted themselves on British soil, each group of families united by kinship fixed its home in a separate village or township, to which was given the name of the kindred followed by 'ham' or 'tun,' the first word meaning the home or dwelling, the second the earthen mound which formed the defence of the community. Thus Wokingham is the home of the Wokings, and Wellington the 'tun' of the Wellings. Each man had a homestead of his own, with a strip or strips of arable land in an open field. Beyond the arable land was pasture and wood, common to the whole township, every villager being entitled to drive his cattle or pigs into them according to rules laid down by the whole township.

9. Eorls, Ceorls, Gesiths.—The population was divided into Eorls and Ceorls. The Eorl was hereditarily distinguished by birth, and the Ceorl was a simple freeman without any such distinction. How the difference arose we do not know, but we do know that the Eorl had privileges which the Ceorl had not. Below the Ceorls were slaves taken in war or condemned to slavery as criminals. There were also men known as Gesiths, a word which means 'followers,' who were the followers of the chiefs or Ealdormen (Eldermen) who led the conquerors. The Gesiths formed the war-band of the chief. They were probably all of them Eorls, so that though every settler was either an Eorl or a Ceorl, some Eorls were also Gesiths. This war-band of Gesiths was composed of young men who attached themselves to the chief by a tie of personal devotion. It was the highest glory of the Gesith to die to save his chief's life. Of one Gesith it is told that, when he saw a murderer aiming a dagger at his chief, he, not having time to seize the assassin, threw his body between the blow and his chief, and perished rather than allow him to be killed. It was even held to be disgraceful for a Gesith to return from battle alive if his chief had been slain. The word by which the chief was known was Hlaford (Lord), which means a giver of bread, because the Gesiths ate his bread. They not only ate his bread, but they shared in the booty which he brought home. They slept in his hall, and were clothed in the garments woven by his wife and her maidens. A continental writer tells how a body of Gesiths once approached their lord with a petition that he should take a wife, because as long as he remained unmarried there was no one to make new clothes for them or to mend their old ones.

10. The Gesiths and the Villagers.—At the time of the English settlement, therefore, there were two sorts of warriors amongst the invaders. The Ceorls, having been accustomed to till land at home, were quite ready to till the lands which they had newly acquired in Britain. They were, however, ready to defend themselves and their lands if they were attacked, and they were under the obligation of appearing in arms when needed for defence. This general army of the villagers was called the Fyrd. On the other hand, the Gesiths had not been accustomed to till land at home, but had made fighting their business. War, in short, which was an unwelcome accident to the Ceorl, was the business of life to the Gesith. The exact relationship between the Gesiths and the Ceorls cannot be ascertained with certainty. It is not improbable that the Gesiths, being the best warriors amongst their countrymen, sometimes obtained land granted them by their chiefs, and were expected in consequence to be specially ready to serve the chief whom they had followed from their home. It was from their relation to their chief that they were called Gesiths, a name gradually abandoned for that of Thegns, or servants, when they—as was soon the case—ceased to live with their chief and had houses and lands of their own, though they were still bound to military service. How these Thegns cultivated their lands is a question to which there is no certain answer. In later days they made use of a class of men known as bondmen or villeins. These bondmen were not, like slaves, the property of their masters. They had land of their own which they were allowed to cultivate for themselves on condition of spending part of their time in cultivating the land of their lords. It has been supposed by some writers that the Thegns employed bondmen from the earliest times of the conquest. If, however, this was the case, there arises a further question whether the bondmen were Englishmen or Britons. The whole subject is under investigation, and the evidence which exists is excessively scanty. It is at least certain that the further the conquest progressed westwards, the greater was the number of Britons preserved alive.

11. English and Welsh.—The bulk of the population on the eastern and southern coasts was undoubtedly English. English institutions and English language took firm root. The conquerors looked on the Britons with the utmost contempt, naming them Welsh, a name which no Briton thought of giving to himself, but which Germans had been in the habit of applying somewhat contemptuously to the Celts on the Continent. So far as British words have entered into the English language at all, they have been words such as gown or curd, which are likely to have been used by women, or words such as cart or pony, which are likely to have been used by agricultural labourers, and the evidence of language may therefore be adduced in favour of the view that many women and many agricultural labourers were spared by the conquerors.

12. The Township and the Hundred.—The smallest political community of the new settlers was the village, or, as it is commonly called, the township, which is still represented by the parish, the parish being merely a township in which ecclesiastical institutions have been maintained whilst political institutions have ceased to exist. The freemen of the township met to settle small questions between themselves, under the presidency of their reeve or headman. More important cases were brought before the hundred-moot, or meeting of the hundred, a district which had been inhabited, or was supposed to have been inhabited, either by a hundred kindred groups of the original settlers or by the families of a hundred warriors. This hundred-moot was held once a month, and was attended by four men and the reeve from every township, and also by the Eorls and Thegns living in the hundred. It not only settled disputes about property, but gave judgment in criminal cases as well.

13. Weregild.—In early days, long before the English had left their lands beyond the sea, it was not considered to be the business of the community to punish crime. If any one was murdered, it was the duty of the kinsmen of the slain man to put to death the murderer. In course of time men got tired of the continual slaughter produced by this arrangement, and there sprang up a system according to which the murderer might offer to the kinsmen a sum of money known as weregild, or the value of a man, and if this money was accepted, then peace was made and all thought of vengeance was at an end. At a later time, at all events after the arrival of the English in this country, charges of murder were brought before the hundred-moot whenever the alleged murderer and his victim lived in the same hundred. If the accused person did not dispute the fact the moot sentenced him to pay a weregild, the amount of which differed in proportion to the rank of the slain man, not in proportion to the heinousness of the offence. As there was a weregild for murder, so there was also a graduated scale of payments for lesser offences. One who struck off a hand or a foot could buy off vengeance at a fixed rate.

14. Compurgation and Ordeal.—A new difficulty was introduced when a person who was charged with crime denied his guilt. As there were no trained lawyers and there was no knowledge of the principles of evidence, the accused person was required to bring twelve men to be his compurgators—that is to say, to hear him swear to his own innocence, and then to swear in turn that his oath was true. If he could not find men willing to be his compurgators he could appeal to the judgment of the gods, which was known as the Ordeal. If he could walk blindfold over red-hot ploughshares, or plunge his arm into boiling water, and show at the end of a fixed number of days that he had received no harm, it was thought that the gods bore witness to his innocency and had as it were become his compurgators when men had failed him. It is quite possible that all or most of those who tried the ordeal failed, but as nobody would try the ordeal who could get compurgators, those who did not succeed must have been regarded as persons of bad character, so that no surprise would be expressed at their failure.

15. Punishments.—When a man had failed in the ordeal there was a choice of punishments. If his offence was a slight one, a fine was deemed sufficient. If it was a very disgraceful one, such as secret murder, he was put to death or was degraded to slavery, in most cases he was declared to be a 'wolf's-head'—that is to say, he was outlawed and driven into the woods, where, as the protection of the community was withdrawn from him, anyone might kill him without fear of punishment.

16. The Folk-moot.—As the hundred-moot did justice between those who lived in the hundred, so the folk-moot did justice between those who lived in different hundreds, or were too important to be judged in the hundred-moot. The folk-moot was the meeting of the whole folk or tribe, which consisted of several hundreds. It was attended, like the hundred-moot, by four men and the reeve from each township, and it met twice a year, and was presided over by the chief or Ealdorman. The folk-moot met in arms, because it was a muster as well as a council and a court. The vote as to war and peace was taken in it, and while the chief alone spoke, the warriors signified their assent by clashing their swords against their shields.

17. The Kingship.—How many folks or tribes settled in the island it is impossible to say, but there is little doubt that many of them soon combined. The resistance of the Britons was desperate, and it was only by joining together that the settlers could hope to overcome it. The causes which produced this amalgamation of the folks produced the king. It was necessary to find a man always ready to take the command of the united folks, and this man was called King, a name which signifies the man of the kinship or race at the head of which he stood. His authority was greater than the Ealdorman's, and his warriors were more numerous than those which the Ealdorman had led. He must come of a royal family—that is, of one supposed to be descended from the god Woden. As it was necessary that he should be capable of leading an army, it was impossible that a child could be king, and therefore no law of hereditary succession prevailed. On the death of a king the folk-moot chose his successor out of the kingly family. If his eldest son was a grown man of repute, the choice would almost certainly fall upon him. If he was a child or an invalid, some other kinsman of the late king would be selected.

18. The Legend of Arthur.—Thirty-two years passed away after the defeat of the West Saxons at Mount Badon in 520 (see p. [28]) before they made any further conquests. Welsh legends represent this period as that of the reign of Arthur. Some modern inquirers have argued that Arthur's kingdom was in the north, whilst others have argued that it was in the south. It is quite possible that the name was given by legend to more than one champion; at all events, there was a time when an Ambrosius, probably a descendant of Ambrosius Aurelianus (see p. [27]), protected the southern Britons. This stronghold was at Sorbiodunum, the hill fort now a grassy space known as Old Sarum, and his great church and monastery, where Christian priests encouraged the Christian Britons in their struggle against the heathen Saxons, was at the neighbouring Ambresbyrig (the fortress of Ambrosius), now modernised into Amesbury. Thirty-two years after the battle of Mount Badon the kingdom of Ambrosius had been divided amongst his successors, who were plunged in vice and were quarrelling with one another.

Plan of the city of Old Sarum, the ancient Sorbiodunum. The Cathedral is of later date.

19. The West Saxon Advance.—In 552 Cynric, the West Saxon king, attacked the divided Britons, captured Sorbiodunum, and made himself master of Salisbury Plain. Step by step he fought his way to the valley of the Thames, and when he had reached it, he turned eastwards to descend the river to its mouth. Here, however, he found himself anticipated by the East Saxons, who had captured London, and had settled a branch of their people under the name of the Middle Saxons in Middlesex. The Jutes of Kent had pushed westwards through the Surrey hills, but in 568 the West Saxons defeated them and drove them back. After this battle, the first in which the conquerors strove with one another, the West Saxons turned northwards, defeated the Britons in 571 at Bedford, and occupied the valleys of the Thame and Cherwell and the upper valley of the Ouse. They are next heard of much further west, and it has been supposed that they turned in that direction because they found the lower Ouse already held by Angle tribes. However this may have been, they crossed the Cotswolds in 577 under two brothers, Ceawlin and Cutha, and at Deorham defeated and slew three kings who ruled over the cities of Glevum (Gloucester), Corinium (Cirencester), and Aquæ Sulis (Bath). They seized on the fertile valley of the Severn, and during the next few years they pressed gradually northwards. In 584 they destroyed and sacked the old Roman station of Viriconium. This was their last victory for many a year. They attempted to reach Chester, but were defeated at Faddiley by the Britons, who slew Cutha in the battle.

Old Sarum from an engraving published in 1843, showing mound. (It is now obscured by trees from this point of view.)

20. Repulse of the West Saxons.—After the defeat at Faddiley the West Saxons split up into two peoples. Those of them who settled in the lower Severn valley took the name of Hwiccan, and joined the Britons against their own kindred. This alliance could hardly have taken place if the Hwiccan, in settling in the Severn valley, had destroyed the whole, or even a considerable part, of the Celtic population, though there can be little doubt that there was still slaughter when a battle was fought or a town taken by storm; as it is known that the magnificent Roman buildings at Bath were standing in ruins and the city untenanted many years after the capture of the city. At all events, the Britons, now allied with the Hwiccan, defeated Ceawlin at Wanborough. After this disaster, though the West Saxon kingdom retained its independence, it was independent within smaller limits than those which Ceawlin had wished to give to it. If he had seized Chester he would have been on the way to gain the mastery over all England, but he had tried to do too much in a short time. His people can hardly have been numerous enough to occupy in force a territory reaching from Southampton Water to Bedford on one side and to Chester on another.

21. The Advance of the Angles.—Whilst the West Saxons were enlarging their boundaries in the south, the Angles were gradually spreading in the centre and the north. The East Anglians were stopped on their way to the west by the great fen, but either a branch of the Lindiswara or some new-comers made their way up the Trent, and established themselves first at Nottingham and then at Leicester, and called themselves the Middle English. Another body, known as the Mercians, or men of the mark or border-land, seized on the upper valley of the Trent. North of the Humber the advance was still slower. In 547, five years before the West Saxons attacked Sorbiodunum, Ida, a chieftain of one of the scattered settlements on the coast, was accepted as king by all those which lay between the Tees and the Forth. His new kingdom was called Bernicia, and his principal fortress was on a rock by the sea at Bamborough. During the next fifty years he and his successors enlarged their borders till they reached that central ridge of moorland hill which is sometimes known as the Pennine range. The Angles between the Tees and the Humber called their country Deira, but though they also united under a king, their progress was as slow as that of the Bernicians. Bernicia and Deira together were known as North-humberland, the land north of the Humber, a much larger territory than that of the modern county of Northumberland.

22. The Kymry.—It is probable that the cause of the slow advance of the northern Angles lay in the existence of a strong Celtic state in front. Welsh tradition speaks of a ruler named Cunedda, who after the departure of the Roman legions governed the territory from the Clyde to the south of Wales, which formed the greater part of what had once been known as Upper Britain. (See p. [25].) This territory was inhabited by a mixed population of Britons and Goidels, with an isolated body of Picts in Galloway. A common danger from the English fused them together, and as a sign of the wearing out of old distinctions, they took the name of Kymry, or Comrades, the name by which the Welsh are known amongst one another to this day, and which is also preserved in the name of Cumberland, though the Celtic language is no longer spoken there.

23. Britain at the End of the Sixth Century.—During the sixth century the Kymry ceased to be governed by one ruler, but the chieftains of the various territories all acknowledged the supremacy of a descendant of Cunedda. For purposes of war they combined together, and as the country which they occupied was hilly and easily defended, the northern English discovered that they too must unite amongst themselves if they were to overpower the united resistance of the Kymry.[Back to Contents]