Outlines of Universal History Part 22

THE VIRTUES OF KNIGHTHOOD.--There were characteristic obligations of knighthood. One was _loyalty_, which included a strict fidelity to all pledges, embracing promises made to an enemy. Another knightly virtue was _courtesy_, which was exercised even towards a foe. The spirit of _gallantry_, inspiring devotion to woman, especially the chosen object of love, and protection to womanly weakness, was always a cardinal trait of the chivalric temper. _Courage_, which delighted in daring exploits, and sought fields for the exercise of personal prowess, was an indispensable quality of the knights. The ideal of chivalry was _honor_ rather than benevolence. The influence of chivalry in refining manners was very great; but, especially in its period of decline, it allowed or brought in much cruelty and profligacy. Its distinctive spirit could find room for exercise only amid conflict and bloodshed, which it naturally tended to promote.

CEREMONIES OF INVESt.i.tURE.--When the knight was created according to the complete form, he entered into a bath on the evening previous, was instructed by old knights in "the order and feats" of chivalry, was then clad in white and russet, like a hermit, pa.s.sed the night in the chapel in "orisons and prayers," and at daybreak confessed to the priest, and received the sacrament. He then returned to his chamber. At the appointed hour he was conducted to the hall, where he received the spurs and was girded with the sword by the prince or other lord who was to confer the distinction, by whom he was smitten on the shoulder and charged to be "a good knight." Thence he was escorted to the chapel, where he swore on the altar to defend the church, and his sword was consecrated.

JUDICIAL COMBATS.--The disposition to resort to single combats as a judicial test of guilt or innocence was stimulated by the development of chivalry. There were other ordeals long in vogue, by which it was thought that Heaven would interpose miraculously to shield, and thus to vindicate, the innocent, and to expose the criminal. Such were the plunging of the hand into boiling water, the contact of the flesh with red-hot iron or with fire, the lot, the oath taken on holy relics, the reception of the Eucharist, which would choke the perjurer, and send his soul to perdition. The ordeals were regulated and managed by the clergy. Among the German, and also the Celtic tribes, there are traces of the duel between combatants, for purposes of divination, or of determining on which side in a controversy the right lay. The judicial combat in mediaeval Europe became general. Champions, in cases where the rights of women were in debate, and in other instances where the wager of battle between the direct antagonists in a dispute was impracticable, were selected, or volunteered, to try the issue in an armed conflict. Sometimes professional champions, hired for the occasion, were employed. The custom of judicial combats by degrees declined. The munic.i.p.alities and the spirit of commerce were averse to it. It was opposed by the Emperor Frederic II. and by Louis IX. of France. The influence of the Roman law helped to undermine it; but the opposition of the Church was the most effectual agency in doing away with it. The modern duel, which survived the judicial combat, is a relic of the ancient custom of avenging private injuries, and of proving the courage of the combatants between whom a quarrel had arisen. In the opening of Shakespeare's play of Richard II., in the quarrel of Mowbray and Bolingbroke, the idea of the judicial combat mingles with the motives and feelings characteristic of the duel when stripped of its religious aspect.

FRANCE.--DESCENDANTS OF HUGH CAPET

HUGH THE GREAT (_d_. 956), _m_.

3, Hedwiga, daughter of Henry I of Germany.

| +--HUGH CAPET, 987-996.

| +--ROBERT, 996-1031.

| +--HENRY I,1031-1060.

| +--PHILIP I, 1060-1108, _m_.

Bertha, daughter of Florence I, Count of Holland.

| +--LOUIS VI, 1108-1137.

| +--LOUIS VII, 1137-1180, _m_. 3, Alice, daughter of Theobold II, Count of Champagne.

| +--PHILIP II (Augustus), 1180-1223, _m_. 1, Isabella, daughter of Baldwin V, Count of Hainault.

| +--LOUIS VIII, 1223-1226, _m_. Blanche, daughter of Alfonso IX of Castile.

| +--(St.) Louis IX, 1226-1270, _m_. Margaret, daughter of Raimond Berengar IV, Count of Provence.

| +--2, PHILIP III, 1270-1285, | _m_. 1, Isabella, daughter | of James I of Aragon.

| | | +--PHILIP IV, 1285-1314, | | _m_. Jeanne, | | heiress of Champagne and Navarre.

| | | | | +--LOUIS X, 1314-1316.

| | | | | +--PHILIP V, 1316-1322.

| | | | | +--CHARLES IV, 1322-1328.

| | | +--Charles, Count of Valois (_d_.

| 1325), founder of the house of | Valois, _m_. Margaret, daughter | of Charles II of Naples.

| | | +--PHILIP VI, succeeded 1328.

| +--Robert, Count of Clermont, founder of the house of Bourbon.

ENGLAND.--FROM THE CONQUEST TO EDWARD I.

WILLIAM I, 1066-1087, _m._ Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V of Flanders | +--WILLIAM II (Rufus), 1087-1100.

| | (Malcolm Canmore _m._ St. Margaret) | | | +--Mary _m._ Eustace, Count of Boulogne | | | +--Maud | | | +--Matilda.

| _m._ +--HENRY I, 1100-1135 | | | +--MATILDA (_d._ 1167) _m._ | 1, Emperor Henry V; | 2, Geoffrey Plantagenet, | Count of Anjou | | | +--HENRY II, 1154-1189 _m._ | Eleanor of Aquitaine, etc., | wife of Louis VII of France.

| | | +--3, RICHARD I, 1189-1199.

| | | +--5, JOHN, 1199-1216, _m._ | Isabella of Angouleme | | | +--HENRY III, 1216-1272, | _m._ Eleanor, daughter of | Raymond Berengar IV of | Provence.

| | | +--EDWARD I, succeeded 1272.

| +--Adela, _m._ Stephen, Count of Blois.

| +--STEPHEN, 1135-1154. _m._ Maud, daughter of Malcolm Canmore and St. Margaret.

CHAPTER III. ENGLAND AND FRANCE: THE FIRST PERIOD OF THEIR RIVALSHIP (1066-1217).

The emperors, the heads of the Holy Roman Empire, were the chief secular rulers in the Middle Ages, and were in theory the sovereigns of Christendom. But in the era of the Crusades, the kingdoms of England and France began to be prominent. In them, moreover, we see beginnings of an order of things not embraced in the mediaeval system. In France, steps are taken towards a compact monarchy. In England, there are laid the foundations of free representative government.

CONNECTION OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.--For a long time the fortunes of England and of France are linked together. The kings of the French, with their capital at _Paris_, had been often obliged to contend with their powerful liegemen, the dukes of Normandy, at _Rouen_. When the Norman duke became king of England, he had an independent dominion added to the great fief on the other side of the channel. It sometimes looked as if England and France would be united under one sovereignty, so close did their relations become.

DEATH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.--It was while _William the Conqueror_, angry with the king of the French, was burning _Mantes_, in the border-land between Normandy and France, that, by the stumbling of his horse in the ashes, he was thrown forward upon the iron pommel of his saddle, and received the hurt which ended, in the next month, in his death (Sept., 1087). On his death-bed he was smitten with remorse for his unjust conquest of England, and for his b.l.o.o.d.y deeds there. He would not dare to appoint a successor: it belonged, he said, to the Almighty to do that; but he hoped that his son _William_ might succeed him. The burial service at _Caen_, in the church which he had built, was interrupted by _Ascelin_, a knight, who raised his voice to protest against the interment, for the reason that the duke had wrongfully seized from his father the ground on which the church stood. The family of William made a settlement with Ascelin on the spot by paying a sum of money, and the service proceeded. The whole ground was afterwards paid for. William had left money for the rebuilding of the churches which he had burned at _Mantes_. He gave his treasures to the poor and to the churches in his dominions. These circ.u.mstances ill.u.s.trate in a striking way how, in the Middle Ages, ruthless violence was mingled with power of conscience and a sense of righteous obligation.

WILLIAM RUFUS.--William the Conqueror was succeeded by his son, _William Rufus_ (1087-1100), who was as able a man as his father. He promised to be liberal, and to lay no unjust taxes; but he proved to be--especially after the death of the good _Lanfranc_, the archbishop of Canterbury--a vicious and irreligious king. The Norman n.o.bles would have preferred to have his brother _Robert_, who was duke of Normandy, for their king; but the English stood by William. He left bishoprics and abbacies vacant that he might seize the revenues. One of his good deeds was the appointment of the holy and learned _Anselm_ to succeed _Lanfranc_; but he quarreled with _Anselm_, who withdrew from the kingdom. Normandy, which he had tried to wrest from his elder brother _Robert_, was mortgaged to him by the latter, in order that he might set out upon the first Crusade. That duchy came thus into the king's possession. William, while hunting in the New Forest, was killed, if not accidentally, then either, as it was charged, by _Walter Tyrrel_, one of the party, or by some one who had been robbed of his home when the New Forest was made. He was found in the agonies of death, pierced by an arrow shot from a cross-bow.

HENRY I. OF ENGLAND (1100-1135): LOUIS VI. (the FAT) OF FRANCE (1108-1137): LOUIS VII. (1137-1180).--_Henry_ was the youngest son of the Conqueror. His wife was English, and was a great-granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. Her name was Edith, but she a.s.sumed the Norman name of _Matilda_. Her mother Margaret, wife of Malcolm of Scotland, was of the stock of the West Saxon kings. Thus the blood of Alfred, as well as of William the Conqueror, flowed in the veins of the later English kings. In the absence of his older brother _Robert_, who was in Jerusalem, he took the crown, and put forth a _Charter of Liberties_, promising the Church to respect its rights, and giving privileges to his va.s.sals which they in turn were to extend to their own va.s.sals. Robert came back from the Holy Land, and tried to wrest England from his brother. He failed in the attempt. After this, _Henry_ got possession of Normandy by the victory of _Tinchebrai_ in 1106, and kept Robert a prisoner in Cardiff Castle until his death (1135).

_Louis the Fat_, king of France, espoused the cause of _William of c.l.i.to_, son of Robert, but was beaten in 1119 at _Brenneville_. Peace was made between the two kings; but in 1124 _Henry_ of England combined with his son-in-law, _Henry V._ of Germany, for the invasion of France. _Louis_ called upon his va.s.sals, who gathered in such force that the emperor abandoned the scheme. _Louis_ then undertook to chastise those great va.s.sals who had not responded to his summons. _William_, the duke of Aquitane, seeing the power of the suzerain, came into his camp, and offered him his homage. Louis inflicted a brutal punishment in Flanders, where the count, _Charles the Good_, had been a.s.sa.s.sinated in 1127, and which had failed to furnish its contingent in 1124. He obliged the Flemish lords to elect as their count, _William c.l.i.to_, whose rule, however, they presently cast off. _Louis the Fat_ united his son _Louis_ in marriage with _Eleanor_, the only daughter of _William (X.)_, the duke of Aquitaine, and thus paved the way for a direct control over the South. The duchy of _Aquitaine_ included _Gascony_ and other districts, and the suzerainty over _Auvergne, Perigord,_ etc. _Louis the VII._ (1137-1180) was not able to preserve the dominion, extending from the north to the south of France, which he inherited. He plunged into a dispute with Pope _Innocent II._ in relation to the church of _Bourges_, where he claimed the right to name the archbishop. _St. Bernard_ took the side of the Pope. _Suger_, abbot of St. Denis, an able minister, the counselor of the last king, supported _Louis_. The king attacked the lands of _Theobald_ of Champagne, who sided with the Pope, and in his wrath burned the parish church of _Vitry_, with hundreds of poor people who had taken refuge in it. His own remorse and the excommunication of the Pope moved him to do penance by departing on a Crusade. _Suger_, not liking the risk which the monarchy incurred through the absence of the king, opposed the project. _St.

Bernard_ encouraged it. The Crusade failed of any important result; but it helped to infuse a national spirit into the French soldiers, who fought side by side with the army of the emperor, _Conrad III_. On his return, on the alleged ground that _Eleanor_ was too near of kin, he divorced her, and rendered back her dowry (1152).

LOUIS VII. OF FRANCE (1137-1180): STEPHEN (1135-1154) AND HENRY II. of ENGLAND (1154-1189).--The king of England, _Henry I._, after the death of his son by shipwreck, declared his daughter _Matilda_ his heir. She was the widow of _Henry V._, the emperor of Germany. In 1127 she married _Geoffrey_, count of Anjou, surnamed _Plantagenet_ on account of his habit of wearing a sprig of broom (_genet_) in his bonnet. Henry left Matilda, whom he called the "Empress," under the charge of his nephew, _Stephen of Blois_, who got himself elected king by the barons or great landowners,--as there was no law regulating the succession of the crown,--and was crowned at Westminster. They had sworn, however, to support Matilda. Her uncle _David_, king of Scots, took up her cause; but the Scots were defeated at the _Battle of the Standard_ in 1138. England was thrown into utter disorder by these circ.u.mstances: some of the barons fought on one side, and some on the other. There were thieves along the highways, and the barons in their castles were no better than the thieves. The empress landed in England in 1139, to recover her rights. In the civil war that ensued, _Stephen_ was taken prisoner (1141); but _Matilda_, whose imperious temper made her unpopular in London, was driven out of the city. _Stephen_ was released in exchange for the _Earl of Gloucester_. _Matilda_ was at one time in great peril, but contrived to escape in a winter night from Oxford Castle (1142). In 1153 peace was made, by which Stephen was to retain the kingdom, but was to be succeeded by Matilda's eldest son.

CRUELTY OF THE n.o.bLES.--In the time of Stephen and Matilda, the barons, released from the strong hand of his predecessor, were guilty of atrocities which made the people mourn the loss of Henry.

"They built strong castles, and filled them with armed men. From these they rode out as robbers, as a wild beast goes forth from its den. 'They fought among themselves with deadly hatred, they spoiled the fairest lands with fire and rapine; in what had been the most fertile of counties they destroyed almost all the provision of bread.' Whatever money or valuable goods they found, they carried off. They burnt houses and sacked towns, If they suspected any one of concealing his wealth, they carried him off to their castle; and there they tortured him, to make him confess where his money was. 'They hanged up men by their feet, and smoked them with foul smoke. Some were hanged up by their thumbs, others by the head, and burning things were hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about men's heads, and twisted them till they went to the brain. They put men into prisons where adders and snakes and toads were crawling, and so they tormented them. Some they put into a chest short and narrow, and not deep, and that had sharp stones within, and forced men therein so that they broke all their limbs. In many of the castles were hateful and grim things called _rachenteges_, which two or three men had enough to do to carry. It was thus made: it was fastened to a beam, and had a sharp iron to go about a man's neck and throat, so that he might noways sit or lie or sleep; but he bore all the iron. Many thousands they starved with hunger.' The unhappy sufferers had no one to help them. Stephen and Matilda were too busy with their own quarrel to do justice to their subjects. Poor men cried to Heaven, but they got no answer. 'Men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep.'"

DOMINIONS OF HENRY II.--_Henry_, the son of the empress and of Count _Geoffrey_ of Anjou, was the first of the _Angevin_ kings of England. They had Saxon blood in their veins, but were neither Norman nor Saxon, except in the female line. It was eighty-eight years since the Conquest; and, although the higher cla.s.ses talked French, almost every one of their number was of mixed descent. The line between Saxon and Norman was becoming effaced. A va.s.sal of the king of France, Henry held so many fiefs that he was stronger than the king himself, and all the other crown va.s.sals taken together. From his father he had _Anjou_; from his mother, _Normandy_ and _Maine_; the county of _Poitou_ and the duchy of _Aquitaine_ he received by _Eleanor_, the divorced wife of Louis VII., whom he married. Later, by marrying one of his sons to the heiress of _Brittany_, that district, the nominal fief of Normandy, came practically under his dominion. He was a strong-willed man, who reduced the barons to subjection, and pulled down the castles which had been built without the king's leave. It might seem probable that the possessor of so great power would absorb the little monarchy of France. But this was prevented by long-continued discord in England,--discord in the royal family, between the king and the clergy, and, later, between the king and the barons. On the Continent, the king of England required a great and united force to break the feudal bonds which grew stronger between the king of France and the French provinces of England. We shall soon see how France enlarged her territory, and how the English dominion on the Continent was greatly reduced.

REFORMS OF HENRY.--In order to control the barons, he arranged with them to pay money in lieu of military service. In this way they were weakened. At the same time, he encouraged the small landowners to exercise themselves in arms, which would prepare them for self-defense and to a.s.sist the king. Moreover, he sent judges through the land to hear causes. They were to ask a certain number of men in the county as to the merits of the cases coming before them. These men took an oath to tell the truth. They gradually adopted the custom of hearing the evidence of others before giving to the judges their _verdict_,--that is, their declaration of the truth (from _vere dictum_). Out of this custom grew the jury system.

BECKET: CONSt.i.tUTIONS OF CLARENDON.--The Conqueror had granted to ecclesiastical courts the privilege of trying cases in which the clergy were concerned. On this privilege the clergy had been disposed to insist ever since the fall of the Roman Empire. Under Stephen the energetic restraint exercised upon them was removed. In the early years of the reign of Henry II., there were great disorders among the Norman clergy, and crimes were of frequent occurrence. These were often punished more lightly than the same offenses when committed by a layman, as church courts could not inflict capital punishment. Henry undertook to bring the clergy under the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts. In this attempt he was resisted by _Thomas a Becket_, who had been his chancelor, and whom he raised to the archbishopric of Canterbury (1162), in the full expectation of having his support. He had been gay and extravagant in his ways, and zealous in behalf of whatever the king wished. But the brilliant chancelor became a strict and austere prelate, the champion of the clergy, with a will as inflexible as that of Henry. The only bishop that voted against him at his election, remarked that "the king had worked a miracle in having that day turned a layman into an archbishop, and a soldier into a saint." In this controversy, the clergy had reason to fear that Henry, if he got the power, would use it to punish and plunder the innocent. At a great council of prelates and barons, the _Const.i.tutions of Clarendon_ were adopted (1164), which went far towards the subjecting of the ecclesiastics, as to their appointment and conduct, to the royal will.

_Becket_, with the other prelates, swore to observe these statutes; but he repented of the act, was absolved by the Pope from his oath, and fled to France. Later a reconciliation took place between him and the king. Becket returned to England, but with a temper unaltered. A hasty expression of Henry, uttered in wrath, and indicating a desire to be rid of him, was taken up by four knights, who attacked the archbishop, and slew him, near the great altar in the cathedral at Canterbury (Dec. 29, 1170). The higher n.o.bles welcomed the occasion to revolt. _Henry_ was regarded as the instigator of the b.l.o.o.d.y deed, and was moved to make important concessions to the Pope, _Alexander III_. His life was darkened by quarrels with his sons. In 1173 the kings of France and Scotland, and many n.o.bles of Normandy and England, joined hands with them. Henry, afflicted with remorse, did penance, allowing himself to be scourged by the monks at the tomb of Becket, or "St. Thomas,"--for he was canonized. The people rallied to him, and the n.o.bles were defeated. The rebellion came to an end. The king of Scotland became more completely the va.s.sal of England. In another rebellion the king's sons rebelled against him: in 1189 _John_, the youngest of them, joined with his brother Richard. Then Henry's heart was broken, and he died.

CONQUEST OF IRELAND.--In the first year of Henry's reign, he was authorized by _Pope Hadrian IV._ to invade Ireland. In 1169 _Dermot of Leinster_, a fugitive Irish king, undertook to enlist adventurers for this service. He was aided by _Richard of Clare_, earl of Pembroke, called _Strongbow_, and others. They were successful; and in 1171 _Henry_ crossed over to Ireland, and was acknowledged as sovereign by all the chiefs of the South. A synod brought the Irish Church into subjection to the see of Canterbury. But there was constant warfare, and the North and East of the island were not subdued. The whole country was not conquered until _Elizabeth's_ time, four centuries later.

WEAKENING OF GREAT Va.s.sALS IN FRANCE.--The weakening of _Henry's_ power was the salvation of _Louis VII._, who had more the spirit of a monk than of an active and resolute monarch. At his death a new epoch is seen to begin. The dominion of the great va.s.sals declines, and the truly monarchical period commences. It was the change which ended in making the king the sole judge, legislator, and executive of the country. _Louis the Fat, Philip Augustus,_ and _St. Louis (Louis IX.)_ are the early forerunners of _Louis XIV._, under whom the absolute monarchy was made complete.

PHILIP AUGUSTUS OF FRANCE (1180-1223): RICHARD THE LIONHEARTED OF ENGLAND (1189-1199).--_Philip Augustus_ was the last king of France to be crowned before his accession. The custom had helped to give stability to the regal system. Now it was no longer needful. Philip was only fifteen years old when he began to reign alone. For forty-three years he labored with shrewdness and perseverance, and with few scruples as to the means employed, to build up the kingly authority. His first act was a violent attack on the _Jews_, whom he despoiled and banished. This was counted an act of piety. He acquired _Vermandois, Valois_, and _Amiens_; refusing to render homage to the Bishop of Amiens, who claimed to be its suzerain. During the life of _Henry II._, Philip had allied himself closely with his son _Richard_ (the Lion-hearted), who succeeded his father. _Richard_ was pa.s.sionate and quarrelsome, yet generous. He was troubadour as well as king. After his coronation (1189), the two kings made ready for a Crusade together. To raise money, _Richard_ sold earldoms and crown lands, and exclaimed that he would sell London if he could find a buyer. The two kings set out together in 1190. They soon quarreled. _Philip_ came home first, and, while _Richard_ was a prisoner in Austria, did his best to profit by his misfortunes, and to weaken the English reigning house. In the absence of _Richard, John_, his ambitious and unfaithful brother, was made regent by the lords and the London citizens. As nothing was heard of the king, John claimed the crown. Hearing of the release of _Richard, Philip_ wrote to _John_ (1194), "Take care of yourself, for the devil is let loose." _Richard_ made war on _Philip_ in Normandy, but Pope _Innocent III._ obliged the two kings to make a truce for five years (1199). Two months after, Richard was mortally wounded while besieging a castle near _Limoges_, where it was said that a treasure had been found, which he as the suzerain claimed. He had never visited England but twice; and, although he always had the fame of a hero, the country had no real cause to regret his death.

JOHN OF ENGLAND (1199-1216).--John (surnamed _Sansterre_, or _Lackland_, a name given to the younger sons, whose fathers had died before they were old enough to hold fiefs) was chosen king. Anjou, Poitou, and Touraine desired to have for their duke young _Arthur_, duke of Brittany, the son of _Geoffrey_, John's elder brother. _Philip Augustus_ took up the cause of Arthur, but deserted him when he had gained for himself what he wished. When Philip wished to reopen the war he took advantage of a complaint from one of John's va.s.sals, Hugh of Lusignan, whose affianced bride John had stolen away. As suzerain Philip summoned John to answer at Paris, and when he did not appear the court declared his fiefs forfeited. It was in this war that Arthur was captured by his uncle and was murdered. This crime served only to strengthen Philip's cause. He seized on _Normandy_, which thenceforward was French, and _Brittany_, which became an immediate fief of the king (1204). He took the other possessions of England in Northern Gaul. There were left to the English the duchy of _Aquitaine_, with _Gascony_ and the _Channel Islands_. The lands south of the Loire John had inherited from his mother.

TYRANNY OF JOHN.--John robbed his subjects, high and low, under the name of taxation. Not content with forcing money out of the Jews, one of whom he was said to have coerced by pulling out a tooth every day, he treated rich land-owners with hardly less cruelty. He had not, like _Henry II._, the support of the people, and added to his unpopularity by hiring soldiers from abroad to help him in his oppression.

JOHN'S QUARREL WITH THE POPE: MAGNA CHARTA.--As rash as he was tyrannical, John engaged in a quarrel with Pope _Innocent III_.

The monks of Canterbury appointed as archbishop, not the king's treasurer, whom he bade them choose, but another. The Pope neither heeded the king nor confirmed their choice, but made them elect a religious and learned Englishman, _Stephen Langton_. _John_, in a rage, drove the monks out of Canterbury, and refused to recognize the election. The Pope excommunicated him, and laid England under an _interdict_; that is, he forbade services in the churches, and sacraments except for infants and the dying; marriages were to take place in the church porch, and the dead were to be buried without prayer and in unconsecrated ground. As _John_ paid no regard to this measure of coercion, _Innocent_ declared him deposed, and charged the king of France to carry the sentence into effect (1213). Resisted at home, and threatened from abroad, _John_ now made an abject submission, laying his crown at the feet of _Pandulph_, the Pope's legate. He made himself the va.s.sal of the Pope, receiving back from him the kingdoms of England and Ireland, which he had delivered to _Innocent_, and engaging that a yearly rent should be paid to Rome by the king of England and his heirs. _Philip_ had to give up his plan of invading England. _John's_ tyranny and licentiousness had become intolerable. _Langton_, a man of large views, and the English Church, united with the barons in extorting from him, in the meadow of _Runnymede_,--an island in the Thames, near Windsor,--the _Magna Charta_, the foundation of English const.i.tutional liberty. It secured two great principles: _first_, that the king could take the money of his subjects only when it was voted to him for public objects; and _secondly_, that he could not punish or imprison them at his will, but could only punish them after conviction, according to law, by their countrymen.

The Great Charter is based on the charter of Henry I. It precisely defines and secures old customs, 1. It recognizes the rights of the Church. 2. _It secures person and property from seizure and spoliation without the judgment of peers or the law of the land._ 3. There are regulations for courts of law. 4. Exactions by the lord are limited to the three customary feudal aids. The benefits granted to the va.s.sal are to be extended to the lower tenants. 5, How the Great Council is to be composed, and how convened, is defined. 6. The "liberties and free customs" of London and of other towns are secured. 7. Protection is given against certain oppressive exactions of the Crown. 8. The safety of merchants against exactions in coming into England, and in going out, and in traveling through it, is guaranteed. 9. There is some provision in favor of the villain.

WAR WITH FRANCE.--_John_ joined in a great coalition against _Philip Augustus_. He was to attack France in the south-west; while the emperor, _Otto IV._, and the counts of Flanders and Boulogne, with all the princes of the Low Countries, were to make their attack on the north. It was a war of the feudal aristocracy against the king of the French. At the great battle of _Bouvines_ (1214) the French were victorious. The success, in the glory of which the communes shared, added no territory to France; but it awakened a national spirit. _John_ was beaten in _Poitou_, and went home.

DEPOSITION OF JOHN.--In England, _John_ found that all his exertions against the _Charter_, even with the aid of Rome, were unavailing. In a spirit of vengeance, he brought in mercenary freebooters, and marched into Scotland, robbing and burning as he went. Every morning he burned the house in which he had lodged for the night. At length the English barons offered the crown to _Louis_, the eldest son of _Philip Augustus_; but _John_ died in 1216, and _Louis_ found himself deserted. He had shown a disposition to give lands to the French.

THE ALBIGENSIAN WAR.--The war against the _Albigenses_ began in the reign of _Philip_; but he pleaded that his hands were full, and left it to be waged by the n.o.bles. That sect had its seat in the south of France, and derived its name from the city of _Albi_. It held certain heterodox tenets, and rejected the authority of the priesthood. In 1208, under _Innocent III._, a crusade was preached against _Raymond VI._, count of Toulouse, in whose territory most of them were found. This was first conducted by _Simon de Montfort_, and then by Philip's son, _Louis VIII._, the county of _Toulouse_ being a fief of France. The result of the desolating conflict was, that part of the count's fiefs were in 1229 transferred to the crown, and the country itself in 1270. In that year, at the council of Toulouse, the _Inquisition_, a special ecclesiastical tribunal, was organized to complete the extermination of the _Albigensians_ who had escaped the sword. The advantages resulting from the crushing of the sovereignties of the south were sure to come to the French monarchy. But _Philip_ left it to the n.o.bles and to his successors to win the enticing prize.

The first period of rivalry between England and France ends with _John_ and _Philip Augustus_. For one hundred and twenty years, each country pursues its course separately. Monarchy grows stronger in France: const.i.tutional government advances in England.