The History of England, Volume I | Page 8

IX.
State of Ireland.--Conquest of that Island.--The King's Accommodation with the Court of Rome.--Revolt of young Henry and his brothers.-- Wars and Insurrections.--War with Scotland.--Penance of Henry for Becket's Murder.--William, King of Scotland, defeated and taken Prisoner.--The King's Accommodation with his Sons.--The King's equitable Administration.--Crusades.--Revolt of Prince Richard.--Death and Character of Henry.--Miscellaneous Transactions of his Reign

CHAPTER X.
RICHARD I.
The King's Preparations for the Crusade.--Sets out on the Crusade.-- Transactions in Sicily.--King's Arrival in Palestine.--State of Palestine.--Disorders in England.--The King's Heroic Actions in Palestine.--His Return from Palestine.--Captivity in Germany.--War with France.--The King's Delivery.--Return to England.--War with France.--Death and Character of the King.--Miscellaneous Transactions of this Reign

CHAPTER XI.
JOHN
Accession of the King.--His Marriage.--War with France.--Murder of Arthur, Duke of Britany.--The King expelled the French Provinces.--The King's Quarrel with the Court of Rome.--Cardinal Langton appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.--Interdict of the Kingdom.--Excommunication of the King.-The King's Submission to the Pope.--Discontents of the Barons.--Insurrection of the Barons.--Magna Carta.--Renewal of the Civil Wars.--Prince Lewis called over.--Death and Character of the King
APPENDIX II.
THE FEUDAL AND ANGLO-NORMAN GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.
Origin of the Feudal Law.--Its Progress.--Feudal Government of England.--The Feudal Parliament.--The Commons.-Judicial Power.-- Revenue of the Crown.--Commerce.--The Church.--Civil Laws.--Manners

CHAPTER XII.
HENRY III.
Settlement of the Government.--General Pacification.--Death of the Protector.--Some Commotions.--Hubert de Burgh displaced.--The Bishop of Winchester Minister.--King's Partiality to Foreigners.-- Grievances.--Ecclesiastical Grievances.--Earl of Cornwall elected King of the Romans.--Discontent of the Barons--Simon de Mountfort, Earl of Leicester.--Provisions of Oxford.--Usurpation of the Barons.--Prince Edward.--Civil Wars of the Barons.--Reference to the King of France.-- Renewal of the Civil Wars.--Battle of Lewes.--House of Commons.-- Battle of Evesham and death of Leicester.--Settlement of the Government.--Death and Character of the King.--Miscellaneous Transactions of this Reign

CHAPTER I.
THE BRITONS.--ROMANS.--SAXONS.--THE HEPTARCHY.--THE KINGDOM OF KENT-- OF NORTHUMBERLAND--OF EAST ANGLIA--OF MERCIA--OF ESSEX--OF SUSSEX--OF WESSEX

[MN The Britons.] The curiosity, entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Ingenious men, possessed of leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the period in which literary monuments are framed or preserved; without reflecting that the history of past events is immediately lost or disfigured when intrusted to memory or oral tradition; and that the adventures of barbarous nations, even if they were recorded, could afford little or no entertainment to men born in a more cultivated age. The convulsions of a civilized state usually compose the most instructive and most interesting part of its history; but the sudden, violent, and unprepared revolutions incident to barbarians are so much guided by caprice, and terminate so often in cruelty, that they disgust us by the uniformity of their appearance; and it is rather fortunate for letters that they are buried in silence and oblivion. The only certain means by which nations can indulge their curiosity in researches concerning their remote origin, is to consider the language, manners, and customs of their ancestors, and to compare them with those of the neighbouring nations. The fables which are commonly employed to supply the place of true history ought entirely to be disregarded; or if any exception be admitted to this general rule, it can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions, which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of the attention of mankind. Neglecting, therefore, all traditions, or rather tales, concerning the more early history of Britain, we shall only consider the state of the inhabitants as it appeared to the Romans on their invasion of this country: we shall briefly run over the events which attended the conquest made by that empire, as belonging more to Roman than British story: we shall hasten through the obscure and uninteresting period of Saxon annals: and shall reserve a more full narration for those times when the truth is both so well ascertained and so complete as to promise entertainment and instruction to the reader.
All ancient writers agree in representing the first inhabitants of Britain as a tribe of the Gauls or Celtae, who peopled that island from the neighbouring continent. Their language was the same; their manners, their government, their superstition, varied only by those small differences which time or communication with the bordering nations must necessarily introduce. The inhabitants of Gaul, especially in those parts which lie contiguous to Italy, had acquired, from a commerce with their southern neighbours, some refinement in the arts, which gradually diffused themselves northwards, and spread but a very faint light over this island. The Greek and Roman navigators or merchants (for there were scarcely any other travellers in those ages) brought back the most shocking accounts of the ferocity of the people, which they magnified, as usual, in order to excite the admiration of their countrymen. The south-east parts, however, of Britain had already, before the age