J. Franck Bright

“ When the late King died in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, he believed that the war with Scotland would have been carried on by his son, of whom he was very fond; while he thought he had secured him from that danger which he had already foreseen would beset his reign, by insisting on the dismissal of his favourite, Piers Gaveston. Gaveston was a young man of Gascon or Basque origin, of greater refinement apparently than the rough barons of England, their equal, if not their superior, in martial exercises, and possessing those courtly tastes for music and the arts which marked the young King. ”

“ The Church, indeed, threw all its influence on the side of the Crown, but it was in the consciousness of the insecurity of its position in the hearts of the people that it did so. The King and his Commons stood face to face, with no intermediate class to check their mutual action, but the Commons were already free, and headed by a rapidly rising body of wealthy secondary landowners or merchants. Nevertheless, the immediate effect of the destruction of the nobility was completely to check constitutional growth, and to establish a government which was little short of arbitrary. ”

“ The chief interest in the Conquest is the change that it is always said to have exercised in the character of the institutions of England. It used to be asserted that the feudal system was introduced, and completed as a wholly new system to the English, after the Conquest; and Hume speaks of the division of the kingdom into so many knights’ fiefs, into so many baronies, as if there were complete reorganization of the whole constitution. ”

“ The period occupied by what we speak of as English history is that, speaking broadly, during which the great mediæval systems—feudalism and the Church—have by degrees given place to modern society, of which the moving-springs are freedom of the individual, government in accordance with the popular will, and freedom of thought. The object of a History of England is therefore to trace that change as it worked itself out amid all the various influences which affected it in our own nation. ”

“ The facts of the reign are few and in themselves unimportant. To the growth of the constitution it added nothing. It is nevertheless interesting as exhibiting the effects of unbridled feudalism, and as preparing the way for the great work of consolidation perfected by Henry II.; on the one hand by the misery and disgust excited by the lawless outrages of the barons; on the other by the overwhelming power thrown into the hands of the Church, which could not co-exist with any true national monarchy. ”

“ Observing only the obvious fact, that the possession of money enabled a man to purchase whatever he wanted, early traders conceived the idea that money was wealth, and that nothing else was. And as the wealth of the nation was of the last importance, both to the governor and to the governed, and as trade was the chief method by which money could be supplied, and by which money might be drawn from the country, the regulation of trade became one of the most important duties of the King and the Parliament. ”

“ In the pursuit of good government he had crushed the feudal nobles, and had welded Norman and English into one nation. In so doing, he had greatly increased the royal power; for in those early times good government invariably implied a strong monarchy. In patriotic hands his work might have continued. But when the increased royal power passed to reckless rulers, such as Richard and John, it enabled them to play the part of veritable tyrants. They had used this power in ruthlessly pillaging the people. ”

“ Henry IV., with disputed title, and in the midst of excited passions of faction, in which he had himself taken a prominent share, had to work out for himself the establishment of his dynasty and the restoration of political order. His son entered into the fruits of his labour. He had but to continue his father’s policy. The dynasty seemed secure, the apparatus of government was in good working order, and the new King, already practised in the work of government, brought with him that popularity which brilliant qualities, a handsome person, and the vigour of youth, are sure to secure. ”

“ The monkish historians, to whom we owe our knowledge of this great man, have overlaid his history with mythical stories, and have given him a character and policy to suit their own purposes. In their eagerness to secure the name of the greatest statesman of the age in support of their pretensions against the secular clergy, they have drawn him as a youth of miraculous gifts, of severe monkish asceticism, whose claim to greatness consisted in the establishment of the Benedictine rule. ”

“ The people of Paris, under the Provost of the Merchants, Stephen Marcel, enacted those scenes of revolution with which that city has been too often familiar. Wearing the red cap of liberty, the mob burst into the palace, killed two of the Dauphin’s most trusted counsellors before his eyes, and drove that Prince to Compiègne. Charles of Navarre, grandson of Louis X., who was surnamed the Bad, broke from the prison in which he had been confined, made common cause with the Parisian mob, roused his tenants in Normandy, where he had much property, to insurrection, and called in the English King. ”

“ The English no longer felt themselves a conquered people. Their oppressors, the feudal nobility, were destroyed or kept in restraint. The new nobles were chiefly ministers of the crown, and all sections of the people looked to the King as the national representative. The importance of Henry’s reign abroad was scarcely less striking. His immense continental dominions made him one of the great powers of Europe. His close contact with France, and the difficulties which it produced, began the hereditary policy of opposition to that country which has characterized the whole of English history. ”

“ Sudden visit to England and displacement of ministry.
Edward’s position was most irritating; his allies were deserting him; in spite of his stringent exactions, his finances were exhausted; he was so deeply in debt that the Flemings, who regarded his presence as a security against France, kept him as it were in pledge. He could not bring himself to believe in such complete failure of his hopes. He was easily led to listen to evil counsellors, who whispered to him that his ministers at home were defrauding him in the matter of the taxes. ”

“ It was not till the feudal barons of England had had their fill of anarchy in the Wars of the Roses, and had destroyed themselves, that constitutional government, in our sense of the word, had a chance of existence, and our sympathies are constantly divided between the Church and barons, whose efforts alone promised freedom, and the power of the encroaching ruler, who alone ensured order. For the weakling who could secure neither one nor the other we can feel no sympathy. In the reign of Edward II. we feel as if we had [198] fallen back again to the time of his grandfather. ”

“ But Innocent probably never intended to proceed to extremities. To embroil two Christian nations would have been to thwart one of his greatest objects, which was a new crusade. But he knew his man; he knew the weakness which was hidden under the violence and ostentatious passion of John, and he also well knew from his emissaries in England the widespread disaffection there. While the army was still lying in its camp, there appeared at Dover Pandulf, as the Pope’s Legate. ”

“ If a prince love his subjects, he will be repaid with love; if he reign justly, he will be honoured; if he err, he ought to be recalled by them whom his unjust denial may have grieved, unless he be willing to be corrected; if he is willing to make amends, he ought to be raised up and aided by those same persons.... If a king be less wise than he ought to be, what advantage will the kingdom gain by his reign? ”

“ Had not the King recognised the weakness of the nobility, caused by the slaughters of the late wars, he would scarcely have ventured on a marriage so much beneath him. As it was, the few great nobles who remained were deeply hurt, and Edward found himself obliged to make the best of his plebeian marriage. An unusually ostentatious and solemn coronation was held, and an air of aristocracy given to the ceremony by the presence of his wife’s relative, John of Luxembourg. ”

“ The struggle to harmonize the relations which should exist between the Crown and the subject occupies the second period of our history. It assumes several forms; sometimes the dislike of foreigners, sometimes a desire for self-taxation, sometimes it seems little more than an outbreak of an over-strong nobility. But whatever its form, the fruits of the struggle were lasting. The rival claims of King and nation, acknowledged and regulated by the wisdom of Edward I., gave rise to that balanced constitution which in its latest development still exists among us. ”

“ Meanwhile, the royalist barons on the Marches of Wales, especially Mortimer, Clifford and Leybourne, began to bestir themselves. Some of them even pushed as far as Wallingford, where Prince Edward was a prisoner, and attempted, though in vain, to liberate him. The liberation of this Prince was now the chief object of the royalists, and the pressure put upon Leicester was so great, that he had, though unwillingly, to consent to measures which should bring it about. There was indeed every reason to desire that he should be freed. ”

“ The reign of Edward II. affords the best apology for any excessive exertions of power which can be laid to the charge of Edward I. It is plain that there existed a readiness on the part of the nobles to take advantage of any weakness in the government of their ruler; on the part of the clergy to reclaim the liberties of their order; and of the lower classes to find a popular hero in every opponent of the government. It would seem indeed that there was no alternative between a strong and practically despotic government and anarchy. ”

“ During the last hundred years great social changes had been going on, and great social progress made. In fact, till the end of the reign of King John, the social, like the political history of the country scarcely deserves the name of national. The description of any feudal society will in a great measure suit it. But the national existence had been worked out in the reign of Henry III., and was completed and finally established by the great time of Edward I. From that time onwards, continuous change and growth had been visible, and that growth had been national. ”

“ By July all the English nobles had returned to their allegiance, and Prince David had withdrawn the Scotch troops. The same rapidity which saved England saved Normandy also. The sudden arrival of the King before Rouen raised the siege of that place, which had been hard pressed, and before long a peace between Henry and Louis was made, by which all the French conquests were restored, and the young King Henry’s dependants had to abjure the fealty which they had taken to him. The great insurrection which for a moment had threatened the existence of Henry’s monarchy was thus over. ”

“ Even the tenure of land upon military service existed. The main distinction between the condition of England and that of the Continent, where the feudal system had been fully established, lay in this,—there still existed a certain number of freemen whose land was their own. They were indeed obliged to acknowledge the jurisdiction of a lord, but they were free to choose their own lord. They were suitors to his court, but he did not possess their land. The feudal system in its completed form may be regarded as exhibiting two peculiar features:—jurisdiction was in the hand of large landowners ”

“ The rapacity and licentiousness of the conquerors made itself heavily felt. Discontent began to show itself in the North, in the West, and in the South; and the native English, despairing of their unaided efforts, began to seek assistance from abroad. The news of this danger brought William back to England in the December of 1067. But already a revolt in Bernicia, as the Northern division of Northumberland was called, had produced the death of the newly-made Earl Copsige. ”

“ Free labour for wages had become general, and land was largely held by payment of money rents. Thus far there was improvement. But the change from slavery to personal freedom is always purchased at a somewhat heavy price—that price is the existence of poverty; it is no longer incumbent on employers to look after the wellbeing of free labourers; in time of want they are thrown upon their own resources. The new possessors of the soil too were inclined to work it to better profit than their predecessors had done; grazing became more common and employment proportionately scarcer. ”