there, their friendship had cooled. Jealousies and quarrels ruined the Crusade; Philip soon went home to lay plans for possessing himself of Richard's continental dominions; the other crusading princes were disgusted with Richard's arrogance, and he with their lack of zeal. After many brilliant exploits, the King, weakened by fever, ended by making a truce with the Sultan Saladin. His ill success had been great grief to him. The Crusaders had not ventured to attack Jerusalem, the object of their enterprise; and when runs the tale-Richard had come within sight of it, he had covered his eyes with his garment, praying God with tears not to let him look upon the Holy City, since he could not deliver it.

2. Deposition of the Chancellor Longchamp. — During this reign, England was really ruled by the King's Justiciars Of these, the Chancellor William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, a Frenchman, was a faithful servant to Richard, but unpopular with the nobles, and filled with a scornful dislike of the English. He was before long deposed from his office by a meeting of earls, barons, and London citizens; a new Justiciar was appointed, and the King's brother John declared Regent and heir to the Crown. John soon began to plot mischief with Philip of France against his absent brother, who set out home in Oct. 1192. The next news of him was that he was a prisoner in Austria, and John, declaring that he was dead, laid claim to the Crown.

3. Captivity of Richard.-The King, while travelling homewards through Austria, had been seized by Leopold, Duke of that country, who had been insulted by Richard during the Crusade. The Duke sold his captive to the Emperor Henry VI., who kept him closely guarded, and at one time, it is said, loaded with fetters. He was brought before a meeting of princes of the Empire, on various accusations, among them, that of having procured the assassination of

a fellow Crusader, Conrad Marquis of Montferrat; and although he cleared himself, the Emperor still insisted on so heavy a ransom that to raise it every Englishman had to give a fourth of his income; the very church plate was sold or pawned. After more than a year's captivity, Richard was freed, in Feb. 1194. "Take care of yourself, for the devil is let loose," so Philip wrote to John, when he heard of the ransom being fixed; but Richard inflicted on the brother who had tried to bribe the Emperor to detain him in prison, no punishment beyond depriving him of his lands and castles.

4. Death of Richard. In April, 1199, the King perished in a petty quarrel with the Viscount of Limoges, one of his foreign barons, about a treasure which had been discovered on the estate of the latter. While besieging the Viscount's castle of Chaluz, Richard was wounded in the shoulder by an arrow. The castle being stormed and taken, the King ordered all the garrison to be at once hanged, reserving only Bertrand de Gurdon, the crossbowman who had given him his death-wound. Finding his end drawing near, Richard had Bertrand brought before him. What harm have I done to you, that you have killed me?" The young archer, answering that his father and two brothers had fallen by Richard's hand, bade the King take what revenge he would. I forgive you my death," said Richard, and he ordered his release. Nevertheless after the King's death, Marchadee, the leader of his mercenaries, had the archer barbarously executed.

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Richard early in his reign married Berengaria of Navarre, but had no children.

5. Legendary reputation of Richard.-Legends soon gathered round the striking figure of Cœur de Lion, and he became a hero of romance. His surname probably suggested the tale of his having while in prison torn out with his hands

the heart of a lion sent to slay him; another and a more touching story of his captivity tells how his faithful minstrel Blondel wandered seeking him, and discovered him by means of a song. Little as he had done for England, he came to be looked on as a national hero; while among the Mohammedans, his prowess was remembered in commor phrases. "Hush ye, here is King Richard!" the mother would say to her crying child; and the Arab horsemar. would exclaim to his starting horse, "Dost think it is King Richard?"

CHAPTER XV.

JOHN.

Election of John; Arthur of Britanny; forfeiture of the French possessions (1)—quarrel between John and the Pope; sentence of deposition; John becomes a vassal and tributary of Rome (2) -"The Army of God and His Holy Church;" Magna Carta or the Great Charter (3)—war between John and the Barons; the crown offered to Louis of France (4)—John's death; his children (5).

1. John, surnamed Sansterre or Lackland (a name given to younger sons whose fathers died before they were of age to hold fiefs), 1199-1216.-In England John was chosen King; but in Richard's foreign dominions there was a party which desired for their Duke young Arthur of Britanny, son of John's elder brother Geoffrey; and Philip of France, for his own purposes, took up the lad's cause. A victory before Mira. beau in Poitou threw into John's power Arthur, together with many of his partisans, some of whom were starved to death in prison. It was believed that the King ordered his nephew's eyes to be put out, but that the youth's keeper, Hubert de

Burgh, would not carry out the sentence. However this may have been, Arthur disappeared after a few months' captivity, and rumour accused his uncle of having stabbed him with his own hand. John was summoned by Philip to clear himself before the French peers, and on non-appearance he was adjudged to have forfeited his fiefs. Philip speedily made himself master of Normandy and John's other possessions in Northern Gaul; but the Duchy of Aquitaine, and the Channel Islands, fragments of the Norman Duchy, were left to the English King. To our country these losses proved a gain. Our sovereigns then became Englishmen, instead of being merely French princes holding England.

2. The Interdict.-In 1205 John embroiled himself with Pope Innocent III., the dispute arising on the question whether the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, or the bishops of the province, had the right of electing the Archbishop. The Pope declared for the monks, who on his recommendation elected Stephen Langton, an Englishman then in Rome. As the King refused to recognize this election, Innocent laid the kingdom under an interdict. That is, the churches were closed, and the Sacraments no longer administered, except to infants and the dying; marriages took place only in the church porch; and the dead were buried silently and in unconsecrated ground. But as John would not give way, Innocent in 1212 declared his vassals absolved from their allegiance, and called on all Christian princes and barons to aid in dethroning him. Under this sentence, which Philip was preparing to carry out, John's courage failed him. The harsh enforcement of the Forest laws, his oppressive taxes, above all, his intolerable cruelty and licentiousness, had set high and low against him, and he could not count upon the support of his subjects. One Peter, a hermit of Yorkshire, foretold that when the next Ascension-day should be passed John would

have ceased to reign; and in superstitious terror, the King not only admitted Langton to the Archbishopric, but also by charter granted to the Pope the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to be henceforth held by John and his heirs by a yearly rent. On the 15th May, 1213, in the Templars' Church near Dover, he made his submission, and swore fealty to Innocent. In a few days the Feast of the Ascension passed, and John had the hermit hanged for a false prophet. But people murmured that Peter had spoken true; John was no longer a sovereign, but a vassal.

3. Magna Carta.-The Barons were now resolved to put a check upon John's tyranny; and, in spite of his friendship with Rome, Archbishop Langton and the English Church made common cause with them. In the autumn of 1214 the confederates took an oath upon the altar at St. Edmundsbury to withdraw their allegiance, if John should refuse their demands. In his passion the King swore that he would never grant them liberties which would make him a slave; but when the confederates-" the Army of God and His Holy Church"-marched under Robert FitzWalter upon London, and were willingly admitted, he was brought to submit. At Runnymede, a meadow near Windsor, on June 15th, 1215, the King met the Barons, and signed the Charter which embodied their demands. Thus was won Magna Carta, the Great Charter, held sacred to this day as the foundation of our liberties. Yet it was no new law, but rather a correction of abuses. The first clause secured the liberties of the Church; others were devoted to removing the grievances of the Barons as tenants of the Crown. Of these an important one was that no scutage or aid (assistance in money from a vassal to his lord) should be levied without the consent of the King's tenants in council assembled, except on three specified occasions. But, to their honour, these patriot