The History of England, Volume I | Page 8

Primate.--Compromise with him.--Wars
abroad.--Death of Prince William.--King's second Marriage.--Death
and Character of Henry

CHAPTER VII.
STEPHEN
Accession of Stephen.--War with Scotland.--Insurrection in favour of
Matilda.--Stephen taken Prisoner.--Matilda crowned.--Stephen
released.--Restored to the Crown.--Continuation of the Civil Wars.--
Compromise between the King and Prince Henry.--Death of the King

CHAPTER VIII.
HENRY II.
State of Europe--of France.--First Acts of Henry's Government.--
Disputes between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers.-Thomas à
Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.--Quarrel between the King and
Becket.-- Constitutions of Clarendon.--Banishment of
Becket.--Compromise with him.--His return from Banishment.-His
Murder.--Grief and Submission of the King

CHAPTER 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