A Child's History of England

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Чарльз Диккенс. A Child's History of England

CHAPTER I – ANCIENT ENGLAND AND THE ROMANS

CHAPTER II – ANCIENT ENGLAND UNDER THE EARLY SAXONS

CHAPTER III – ENGLAND UNDER THE GOOD SAXON, ALFRED

CHAPTER IV – ENGLAND UNDER ATHELSTAN AND THE SIX BOY-KINGS

CHAPTER V – ENGLAND UNDER CANUTE THE DANE

CHAPTER VI – ENGLAND UNDER HAROLD HAREFOOT, HARDICANUTE, AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

CHAPTER VII – ENGLAND UNDER HAROLD THE SECOND, AND CONQUERED BY THE NORMANS

CHAPTER VIII – ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE FIRST, THE NORMAN CONQUEROR

CHAPTER IX – ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE SECOND, CALLED RUFUS

CHAPTER X – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FIRST, CALLED FINE-SCHOLAR

CHAPTER XI – ENGLAND UNDER MATILDA AND STEPHEN

CHAPTER XII – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE SECOND

PART THE FIRST

PART THE SECOND

CHAPTER XIII – ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE FIRST, CALLED THE LION-HEART

CHAPTER XIV – ENGLAND UNDER KING JOHN, CALLED LACKLAND

CHAPTER XV – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE THIRD, CALLED, OF WINCHESTER

CHAPTER XVI – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FIRST, CALLED LONGSHANKS

CHAPTER XVII – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE SECOND

CHAPTER XVIII – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE THIRD

CHAPTER XIX – ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE SECOND

CHAPTER XX – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FOURTH, CALLED BOLINGBROKE

CHAPTER XXI – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FIFTH

FIRST PART

SECOND PART

CHAPTER XXII – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE SIXTH

PART THE FIRST

PART THE SECOND: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC

PART THE THIRD

CHAPTER XXIII – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FOURTH

CHAPTER XXIV – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FIFTH

CHAPTER XXV – ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE THIRD

CHAPTER XXVI – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE SEVENTH

CHAPTER XXVII – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH, CALLED BLUFF KING HAL AND BURLY KING HARRY

PART THE FIRST

CHAPTER XXVIII – ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH

PART THE SECOND

CHAPTER XXIX – ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE SIXTH

CHAPTER XXX – ENGLAND UNDER MARY

CHAPTER XXXI – ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH

SECOND PART

THIRD PART

CHAPTER XXXII – ENGLAND UNDER JAMES THE FIRST

SECOND PART

CHAPTER XXXIII – ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE FIRST

SECOND PART

THIRD PART

FOURTH PART

CHAPTER XXXIV – ENGLAND UNDER OLIVER CROMWELL

SECOND PART

CHAPTER XXXV – ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND, CALLED THE MERRY MONARCH

SECOND PART

CHAPTER XXXVI – ENGLAND UNDER JAMES THE SECOND

CHAPTER XXXVII

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The Romans had scarcely gone away from Britain, when the Britons began to wish they had never left it. For, the Romans being gone, and the Britons being much reduced in numbers by their long wars, the Picts and Scots came pouring in, over the broken and unguarded wall of Severus, in swarms. They plundered the richest towns, and killed the people; and came back so often for more booty and more slaughter, that the unfortunate Britons lived a life of terror. As if the Picts and Scots were not bad enough on land, the Saxons attacked the islanders by sea; and, as if something more were still wanting to make them miserable, they quarrelled bitterly among themselves as to what prayers they ought to say, and how they ought to say them. The priests, being very angry with one another on these questions, cursed one another in the heartiest manner; and (uncommonly like the old Druids) cursed all the people whom they could not persuade. So, altogether, the Britons were very badly off, you may believe.

They were in such distress, in short, that they sent a letter to Rome entreating help – which they called the Groans of the Britons; and in which they said, ‘The barbarians chase us into the sea, the sea throws us back upon the barbarians, and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or perishing by the waves.’ But, the Romans could not help them, even if they were so inclined; for they had enough to do to defend themselves against their own enemies, who were then very fierce and strong. At last, the Britons, unable to bear their hard condition any longer, resolved to make peace with the Saxons, and to invite the Saxons to come into their country, and help them to keep out the Picts and Scots.

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They gathered closer round him, threatening, but he stood unmoved. Then, one man struck him; then, another; then a cursing soldier picked up from a heap in a corner of the hall, where fragments had been rudely thrown at dinner, a great ox-bone, and cast it at his face, from which the blood came spurting forth; then, others ran to the same heap, and knocked him down with other bones, and bruised and battered him; until one soldier whom he had baptised (willing, as I hope for the sake of that soldier’s soul, to shorten the sufferings of the good man) struck him dead with his battle-axe.

If Ethelred had had the heart to emulate the courage of this noble archbishop, he might have done something yet. But he paid the Danes forty-eight thousand pounds, instead, and gained so little by the cowardly act, that Sweyn soon afterwards came over to subdue all England. So broken was the attachment of the English people, by this time, to their incapable King and their forlorn country which could not protect them, that they welcomed Sweyn on all sides, as a deliverer. London faithfully stood out, as long as the King was within its walls; but, when he sneaked away, it also welcomed the Dane. Then, all was over; and the King took refuge abroad with the Duke of Normandy, who had already given shelter to the King’s wife, once the Flower of that country, and to her children.

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