And fears it will be forfeited because

He's in my service. Am I then so poor,
That I no longer can indemnify

My servants? Well! To no one I employ

Means of compulsion. If 'tis thy belief

That fortune has fled from me, go! Forsake me.
This night, for the last time, mayst thou unrobe me,
And then go over to thy Emperor.

Gordon, good night! I think to make a long
Sleep of it: for the struggle and the turmoil

Of this last day or two were great. May't please you!
Take care that they awake me not too early.

-SCHILLER, translated by COLERIDGE.

MANY of the rulers who have been the means of conferring the greatest blessings on their countries have been men of wicked lives or worthless character. In some cases their very faults have been overruled by Divine Providence for the welfare of their people and the whole human race. Such was the case with the solitary King of England bearing the name of John.

Richard, Cœur de Lion, who left no heir, bequeathed his throne to his brother John, Duke of Montaigue. John was born 1166 A.D.; surnamed Sansterre, or Lackland. He was not the lineal heir, for his elder brother, Geoffrey, had left a son, Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, now a lad of but twelve years of age. A council held at Northampton confirmed the choice of Richard I., and John was crowned at Westminster in 1199.

Philip of France embraced the cause of the young Duke Arthur, took him under his protection, and sent him to Paris to be educated with his own son. War was declared. After some fruitless conferences, a treaty of peace was concluded, by which they adjusted the limits of all their territories; mutually secured the interests of their vassals; and, to render the union more durable, John gave his niece, Blanche of Castile, in marriage to Prince Louis, Philip's eldest son. Nine barons of the King of England, and as many of the King of France, were guarantors of this treaty; and all of them swore,

that if the sovereign violated any article of it, they would declare themselves against him, and uphold the cause of the injured monarch.

The young Duke of Bretagne, who was now rising to man's estate, led a small army into Poitou, but was defeated by John at the castle of Mirabeau. Arthur was confined in the castle of Falaise. Here John had a conference with his nephew, and represented to him the folly of his pretensions. The brave, though imprudent, youth maintained the justice of his cause; asserted his claim, not only to the French provinces, but the crown of England. John, sensible from these symptoms of spirit, that the young prince, though now a prisoner, might hereafter prove a dangerous enemy, cast him into the dungeon of Rouen. Arthur was never more heard of. It has been said that John slew him with his own hand. Shakespeare, who has depicted dramatically the occurrences of this period, represents Arthur as dying by a leap from the castle walls. Arthur's sister, Eleanor, called the Maid of Bretagne, was imprisoned within Bristol Castle till her death.

All men were struck with horror at John's inhumanity; and from the moment of Arthur's murder, the king, detested by his subjects, retained a very precarious authority over both the people and the barons in his dominions. John, having divorced Joanna, married Isabella of Angoulême, the affianced wife of the Earl of Marcha. He espoused Isabella, regardless of the menaces of the Pope, who denounced these irregular proceedings, and of the resentment of the injured earl, who sought means of punishing his powerful and insolent rival. He and his brother excited commotions in Poictou and Normandy, and King John soon found himself stripped of his provinces of Normandy, Anjou, and Maine.

The See of Canterbury, which possessed the primacy of England, having fallen vacant, the monks nominated John de Gray, Bishop of Norwich, and a favorite of the king; Pope Innocent III. chose Stephen Langton. The monks yielded to the Pope; but John, defying the pontiff, drove them from their abbeys and seized their treasures, because they had not supported his favorite, De Gray. This conduct drew upon the country the terrors of an interdict. The nation was suddenly

deprived of all external exercise of its religion; the altars were despoiled of their ornaments; the crosses, the relics, the images, the statues of the saints, were laid on the ground; and, as if the air itself was profaned, and might pollute them by its contact, the priests carefully covered them up, even from their own approach and veneration. The use of bells entirely ceased in all the churches. For six years there was no public worship in the land (1208 to 1214). The people groaned under the curse; but the king, unmoved, visited Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, exacting homage and imposing tribute. Innocent next excommunicated the hardened king.

The Pope at last called upon Philip of France to dethrone the impious monarch; and then John yielded. He took an oath of fealty to the Pope, agreeing to pay to the Roman coffers 1,000 merks as yearly rent for his kingdoms of England and Ireland. He also summoned four men from each county to meet to assess the damages due to the clergy. This assembly proved to be the germ of the future House of Commons. Notwithstanding John's submission to the Pope, the French king proposed to cross the Straits of Dover. His fleet, however, was scattered by William Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, who commanded the navy of England. John, in the flush of this success, sailed to Poitou; but his ally, the Emperor Otho, being defeated, he sought and obtained a truce for five years.

The Norman barons of England had ceased to care for foreign conquests, and when John sought to punish them for refusing to go abroad, they swore to suffer no longer. When John heard their demands, he cried, "As well may they ask my crown!" But he had to deal with stern and resolute men. The barons chose Robert Fitz-Walter as their general, and proceeded to levy war against the king. They seized London, and this forced John to compliance. He, however, tried every expedient to elude the blow, but found himself at last obliged to submit at discretion. A conference between the king and barons was appointed at Runnymede, near WindThe two parties encamped apart, like open enemies, and after a debate of a few days, John, with a facility somewhat suspicious, signed and sealed the charter which was required

sor.

of him, June 19th, 1215. This famous deed, commonly called Magna Charta, still preserved in the British Museum, secured the freedom of elections to the clergy; all check upon appeals to Rome was removed, by the allowance granted every man to depart the kingdom at pleasure. No "freeman should be arrested, imprisoned, outlawed, or dispossessed of land, except by the lawful judgment of his peers." The barons obliged the king to agree that London should remain in their hands, and the Tower be consigned to the custody of the primate.

John seemed to submit passively to all these regulations; but when the barons had departed, he raved like a madman, and cursed the day he was born. He retired to the Isle of Wight, as if desirous of hiding his shame and confusion; but in this retreat he meditated the most fatal vengeance against all his enemies. The first tidings the barons heard were, that the tyrant, having raised an army of mercenaries, was laying waste the land. In despair, the barons called on Louis of France to aid them. Louis landed at Sandwich, and John was marching to meet him; but on the shores of the Wash he saw his money, his jewels, and the records of the kingdom, swept away by the rising tide; and the affliction of this disaster, and vexation from the distracted state of his affairs, increased the sickness under which he already labored. He reached the castle of Newark, and was there obliged to halt. He died October 19th, 1216, aged forty-nine. During his reign London Bridge was completed, and the custom of annually electing a Lord Mayor and two Sheriffs of London was begun. By his last wife, Isabella, he left three sons and three daughters.

John's character was nothing but a complication of vices, equally mean and odious; ruinous to himself and destructive to his people. Cowardice, inactivity, folly, levity, licentiousness, ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty; all these qualities appear in the several incidents of his life. A rebellious son to a loving father, a bad brother and the supposed murderer of his nephew, a greedy oppressor of the people, clergy and nobles, he was the worst king England ever had; yet from his reign sprang the House of Commons, the right of trial by jury, and the Great Charter.