Читать книгу Public School History of England and Canada - Graeme Mercer Adam - Страница 12
ОглавлениеTHE GREAT CHARTER.
[The character of John, his abuse of authority, and the steps taken by the barons to control him, should be clearly brought out. The importance of the provisions of the Magna Charta ought to be dwelt upon and illustrated. The gradual introduction of Parliamentary government, and the great part played by Simon de Montfort, in securing the liberties of the English people, deserve careful treatment. Also, explain interdict and excommunication. Read with the pupils Dickens’s “Prince Arthur” (3rd Reader), and the scene from Shakespeare’s “King John” (4th Reader).
References:—Green, Freeman’s “Norman Conquest,” Bright’s “Medieval Monarchy,” Stubbs’s “Early Plantagenets,” Creighton’s “Simon de Montfort,” and Shakespeare’s “King John.”]
1. King John loses the French Provinces.—The right of John, surnamed “Lackland,” (for, unlike his brothers, he held no estates from the Crown), to succeed to the throne was questioned. Some thought that Prince Arthur of Britanny, son of John’s elder brother, Geoffrey, should be king; but, as had happened before, the English people chose the man rather than the boy. Philip of France, however, stood by Arthur when the latter claimed from John both England and the French provinces. While John was in Normandy, fighting for his possessions, Arthur fell into his hands, and in some unknown manner was put out of the way. Suspecting John, who was treacherous and cruel, to have murdered the youth, Philip, as sovereign lord of France, summoned him to answer the charge; but to this John paid no heed. Philip, thereupon, declared John to have forfeited his French possessions; and most of them were at once severed from the English crown. Though seemingly a loss, this was really a gain to England, for the kings were now shut in to the care of their own island dominions, and the Norman nobles had no other country to divide their allegiance.
2. The Pope’s Interdict (1208-1213).—In 1205, John got into difficulty with the Church and the Pope over the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. To fill the See, the monks chose one man; the king another. The matter was referred to the Pope, who set aside both elections, and appointed a learned Englishman, named Stephen Langton, who was then at Rome. The clergy accepted the Pope’s choice, but the king would not, and in anger he expelled the monks of Canterbury from his kingdom. For this the Pope laid England under an Interdict, which deprived the people of the services of the Church; and for six years no marriages were solemnized, nor were people buried with funeral rites. But John cared so little for this that he robbed the clergy and drove many of them out of England. The Pope now excommunicated him; and when this had no effect upon the defiant king, he declared the English throne vacant, and got Philip of France to prepare to invade the kingdom. Alarmed at this, John made haste to submit to the Pope; promised to pay him annually a large sum of money; and, at Dover, laid his crown at the feet of the papal legate. The king now acknowledged Langton as archbishop, and the ‘Excommunication’ and ‘Interdict’ were withdrawn.
3. Signing of the Great Charter.—When the Interdict was removed, John wanted to go against France and recover Normandy. But his barons were sullen and refused to fight out of England; and the people gave him no support, because he had acted tyrannically and had humbled the nation by accepting his crown from the Pope. John at first contented himself by sending to the assistance of the Count of Flanders, who had been attacked by Philip, a fleet, which won an important victory. But the defeat of his German and Flemish allies at Bouvines (1214), compelled him to make a truce with France. Towards the close of the year the clergy and the barons became restive under John’s continued tyranny; and, at the call of Archbishop Langton and the Earl of Pembroke, a meeting was held at Bury St. Edmunds to enforce their rights. At a private gathering of the barons, in the previous year, Langton brought forward the neglected charter of Henry I., and it was resolved to ask the king to act as he should and stand by its provisions. To give the resolution effect the barons drew up a charter of rights, which they were determined that John should sign. Things had come to such a pass that everyone felt that a rigid check must be put upon the king’s power, and some guarantee given to the people that their rights and liberties should be respected. John, however, would have none of the charter. But the barons were in earnest; and rallying their forces, they made war upon him and took possession of London. John, who had at first stormed and then shuffled, now that his crown was in danger, met the barons at Runnymede, and there Signing of the Great Charter, June 15th, A.D. 1215. signed and affixed his seal to the Great Charter. This famous document was, in the main, but a recapitulation of rights and safeguards heretofore won by the English people; but these now received from John an emphatic confirmation. The provisions of the Charter relate to the Church, the barons, and the people; but its chief stress is on the relation between the Crown and its subjects. The Church was to be free and possess all her privileges. The barons were to be protected from unjust taxation, and to be more fairly dealt with as tenants of the Crown. The people were not to be imprisoned, outlawed, dispossessed of their property, or otherwise punished, save by the judgment of their peers, or equals, or by the law of the land. Justice was not to be sold, delayed, or denied to any man; and all should be at liberty when they pleased to go in and out of the kingdom. London and other towns were to retain their privileges of trade; and taxes were not to be levied without the consent of the people. Twenty-four barons were named to see that the provisions of the Charter were carried into effect. In this great document, which gives security to the life and property of the subject, the English people had for the first time laid down in black and white the “main points of the Constitution and the several rights and duties of king and people.”
4. War with the Barons. Accession of Henry III.—Though John had signed the Charter, he had no intention to do what it required of him. In his anger at being compelled to sign it, he appealed to the Pope, who declared it null and void, and released the king from his oath to respect it. John then got his hired troops together and made war against the barons, laid waste their possessions, and ravaged the land. Many of the barons, in despair, offered the crown to Louis, son of the king of France, and got him to come with an army to help them to fight John. But others of the Death of King John, 19th Oct. A. D. 1216. barons did not want a foreign king, and for a time they took John’s side of the quarrel. The king, however, died in 1216, and England was saved from the danger of another foreign conquest. The king’s death reunited the barons, who all now took the national side against Louis. Louis, unwilling to give up his chance of the Crown, continued to fight; but his army was overthrown at Lincoln and his fleet defeated at Dover. Thereupon, he returned to France. John was succeeded on the throne by his young son, Henry III., who was crowned when but nine years old. The government was first placed in the hands of the good William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, who was made regent. He was succeeded in the Regency by Hubert de Burgh. Under these and other able men who lived in Henry’s long reign, England, though she suffered much from the king’s mismanagement, made great strides towards constitutional government. Hubert de Burgh’s Government. In particular, during the king’s minority, the Charter was three times confirmed, and also recognized by the Pope. The French adventurers who had been in King John’s service were expelled from the kingdom, order was restored, and the aggression of the Church restrained. When, however, the king came of age, he interfered with Hubert de Burgh’s wise government, and drove him from office.
5. The Provisions of Oxford.—Henry, when he became his own adviser, did not know how to rule. He mismanaged affairs, and brought into England many foreign favourites, relatives of his mother, whom he made rich and raised to dignity at the expense of the barons. What Henry had to give away went to foreigners; Henry’s foreign favourites. English heiresses were married to Frenchmen, and even French women were brought over to marry the rich wards of the king. English laws were disregarded by these people, every extravagance was indulged in, and the country was burdened with debt. At length, the English nobles determined to put an end to the king’s misgovernment and favouritism. Under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who had married the king’s sister, the barons met at Westminster to protest against the king’s burdensome taxation, and to demand that the administration of the kingdom be placed in the hands of twenty-four nobles. Later on (A.D. 1258) the National Council, or Parliament, as it now came to be called, met at Oxford, where the king and the barons jointly agreed to a commission to reform and conduct the government. A Council of State was formed, consisting of fifteen members; and what are known as the Provisions of Oxford were produced. These Provisions—which Provisions of Oxford: Government by the Barons. were accepted and sworn to by the king and his son, Prince Edward—required the royal castles to be placed in the hands of Englishmen. Parliament was to meet three times a year, and to be composed of the fifteen councillors and the twelve members representing the barons. Four knights were summoned from each county to declare its grievances; sheriffs were also to be elected; and an account of the public money was to be duly rendered.
6. The Barons’ War, and the First Parliament.—The arrangement made by the Council at Oxford, unhappily, did not last long. Jealousy and dissension broke out among the barons, part of them holding by the great Earl, Simon de Montfort, and part by the king. Meanwhile, the people began to assert their rights, and the growing towns now exercised an influence on public questions. London and the chief towns ranged themselves on the side of Henry taken prisoner at the Battle of Lewes, A.D. 1264. Simon de Montfort, and a pitched battle was fought at Lewes, in Sussex, in which the barons were victorious, and the king and his brother taken prisoners. Simon de Montfort now ruled in the king’s name; and as he wished to use his authority righteously, he summoned a Parliament. To this Parliament, for the first time in the national history, were summoned deputies from the cities and boroughs, also two knights from each shire, in addition to the great barons and prelates who alone had hitherto composed the councils of the kingdom. This memorable Parliament met in January, 1265.
7. Death of de Montfort and Henry III.—Simon de Montfort’s Parliament, though intended to solve the difficulties of the time, did not bring peace to the kingdom. His growing ambition and arrogance offended many of the barons, who disliked to see the king in the absolute power of a subject. The king’s party gradually gained strength, and resort was again had to arms. Prince Edward, the king’s eldest son, who also had been a prisoner of Earl Simon’s, escaped from his guard, and placing himself at the head of a strong party of royalist barons, attacked De Montfort’s De Montfort slain at Evesham, A.D. 1265. army at Evesham and slew the great Earl and his sons. After this, the king’s authority was restored; but De Montfort’s withstanding of tyranny was not forgotten by the people. In 1272, Henry III. died, in the fifty-seventh year of his reign, and was succeeded by his son, Edward I.
[1. What should we admire and what should we condemn in the character of John?
2. Why was the loss by John of his French possessions a gain to England?
3. State the principal provisions of the Great Charter. Give an account of the struggle by which it was obtained.
4. When did the First Parliament meet? Who summoned it? What persons composed it? Narrate the events that led to the summoning of this Parliament.
5. What is the meaning of “interdict,” “excommunication,” “peers,” “wards”?]
