marriage; which, however, made no impreffion upon Thibaut earl of Champagne, elder brother to the English monarch, and uncle to Euftace, who began to renew his old practices, and to form intrigues against a prince, whom he thought too tenderly educated to lead the life his father had done, who was almost always in arms, and whofe experience he thought infufficient to deal with one who had made the framing fuch kind of confederacies almoft the fole bufinefs of his life. But in this he found himself exceed ingly mistaken, and this notwithstanding he was more in the right than perhaps he had ever been in his life.

Albric, archbishop of Bourges, dying, the chapter of that fee elected Pierre de la Châtre, without having the king's permiffion; upon which Lewis fwore he fhould not be archbishop, commanding the chapter to go to a new election, leaving them at full liberty to elect whom they pleafed, Pierre de la Châtre only excepted, which they refufed to do; and the pope declaring in favour of the new archbishop, he retired into the eftates of the count of Champagne, and excommunicated the king's domain within the bounds of his archbishoprick. Lewis, upon this, pushed Thibaut fo hard, that he was on the point of coming to terms, when a new accident excited ftill greater difturbances. Rodolph, count of Vermandois, who was the king's chief minifter, and his near relation, obtained a divorce from his wife, under pretence of their being related, and married Petronilla, the queen's fifter; but his first wife being nearly related to the count of Champagne, he follicited the pope to fend a legate into France to re

view this divorce, who prefently declared it null, and excommunicated Rodolph, in cafe he did not leave his fecond wife, and take back his first. This fo provoked the king, that he made another expedition into Champagne; where, having taken Vitri, he caufed the church to be fet on fire, in which thirteen hundred people were either choaked or burned. But when he came to reflect on this cruel action, he not only admitted the archbishop, and made peace with the count, but refolved to expiate his offence by going to the Holy Land.

It is neceffary here to enter into the characters of two ecclefiaftics, upon whom at this juncture the fate of the king and kingdom abfolutely turned. Thefe, though different in other refpects, agreed in the fingular qualities of unfeigned piety and abfolute difinterestedness. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, was, for thofe times, learned, naturally eloquent, auftere in his life, irreproachable in his morals, zealous in the higheft des gree, and withal inflexible. He had long before gained the reputation of a faint, he was heard as an oracle, and revered as a prophet. Suger, abbot of St. Denis, was a man of another kind, mean in his birth, and meaner in his afpect; he was fo diftinguished by his merit, that he had a great fhare in the adminiftration during the former reign, and, which was not a little ftrange, was equally refpected and beloved in his convent for his humility and ftria manner of life, and admired in the council for his prudence and penetration. Lewis the Grofs loved him for, his fincerity; Lewis le Jeune respected him as his father. Thibaut count of Champagne, the moft arti. ficial man of his time, fet fo high a

value on the friendship of the abbot of St. Denis, that he feldom refufed him any thing, and never attempted to deceive him. Bernard earnefily preffed the king to make the expedition against the infidels in perfon; Suger perfuaded him to contribute men and money, but to remain at home, and govern his people wifely. Bernard carried his point by his vehemence, and Suger, though he fubmitted, retained his own opinion, and made no fcruple of foretelling the inconveniencies that would attend this measure; while Bernard, as if infpired, magnified the honour that would refult from it, and made himself in a great measure answerable for its fuccefs.

A great council of the nobility and prelates was called at Vizila in Burgundy, that a matter of this importance might not feem to be undertaken without the confent of the nation. Hitherto fuch affemblies had been filed by hiftorians who > wrote in Latin, Conventus, or Placita; but we find this denominated Magnum Parliamentum, which is the first time that we meet with this word; and from hence the reader il form a juft notion of the parliaments of France, which, however altered or fallen from what they were, are all that is left of thefe antient parliaments. As there was not in Vizila a church capable of holding even a finall part of fo great a number of people, the affembly was held in the open air. The abbot Bernard read the letter of pope Eugene the third, which he feconded by a vehement declamation. The king then rofe up, and received from his hand the cross which had been fent him from Rome, and then made a difcourfe of the like kind. His queen followed his example;

and then Alonfo de S. Gilles count of Toulouse, Thierri d'Alface count of Flanders, Henry, fon of the count of Champagne, Guy count of Nevers, Renaud his brother, count of Tonnerre, Robert count of Dreux, brother to the king, Yves count of Soiffons, William count of Ponthieu, William count of Varenne, cousin to the king, Archambaud de Bourbon, Enguerrand de Couci, Geoffrey Rancon, Hugues de Lufignan, William de Courtenai, and many other lords. fpoke to the fame purpose; the multitude of perfons of inferior rank, who entered into the fame engagements, almoft exceeded computation. The abbot Bernard, after appointing another affembly to be held before Eafter, went to preach the croifade in Germany; where, by the force of his irrefiftible elocution, he prevailed on the emperor Conrad the third, Frederic duke of Suabia, who was afterwards emperor, and an infinite number of all ranks, to embrace the fame design.

An expedition of this nature could not be undertaken with too much deliberation, and therefore there were two more affemblies held before the king left France, in which Rodolph count of Vermandois, and Suger, abbot of St. Denis, were chofen and confirmed regents of France during the 1147. king's abfence. The forces affembled upon this occafion were suitable to the extent and grandeur of the French monarchy, though the writers of that age do not very exacly agree; the moft authentic affirm, that it was compofed of fourscore thousand horfe, the infantry was very numerous befides, and their very futtlers and attendants might have made a confiderable army. There were many reasons which Hh z

might

might have deterred the emperor, as well as the king of France, from taking the route of the first croifade by land, and by the way of Conitantinople; but there were other motives fo ftrong as to prevail over thefe, or rather the impoffibility of transporting fuch armies by fea was fo apparent, that they were in a manner compelled to overlook objections that could not otherwife have falied to deter them. The emperor, with his troops, marched first through Hungary into the territories of the Greek emperor, and, pafling over the ftreights of Conftantinople, entered into Afia. Lewis

followed him, and was received with great complaifance, and the highest teftimonies of refpect, by the Greek emperor Manuel Comnenes. On his arrival in the neighbourhood of Nice, he found the emperor Conrad with the miferable remains of his army, the far greateft part of which had perished by the fwords of the Turks and the treachery of the Greeks; and it was not long before the king had his full fhare of the like misfortunes; at leaft fo we find things reprefented by the hiftorians of their times.

[To be continued.]

2. Oliver beheaded the lawful king of England.

3. Oliver fought the battle of Worcefter, and gained it againft the lawful heir of England.

4. Oliver refufed the crown, but was made Protector of England.

5. Oliver appropriated none of the public money to his own or his family's ufe.

6. Oliver annexed Ireland and Scotland to England, but referved no quit-rents for his private ufe.

7. Oliver foon after declared war upon and defeated the Dutch in Europe.

8. The parliament wish to limit Oliver's authority.

Suraja Dowla, contrary to the charter of the Mogul, invaded the privileges of the India company.

2. Lord C- fuffered Meer Jaffier to behead Suraja Dowla, lawful fuba of Bengal, when he might have prevented it.

3. Lord C-fought and gained the battle of Plaffey against the lawful heir of the kingdom of Bengal.

4. Lord C-made Meer Jaffer fuba, but was made Omrah of the Empire.

5. Lord C emptied the treafures of the Nabob into his own pockets.

6. Lord C- annexed territory, to the amount of 60,000l. to the company, but referved a jaghire or quit-rent for himself of 30,000 1.

7. Lord C-, without declaring war, engaged and defeated the Dutch

The profeffion was hereditary but when the Bard died, his eftate defcended not to his eldest fon, but to the most accomplished of his family in the poetic and mufical profemon. A law was made by Ollamh Fodhla, one of their greateft kings, that none thould be invefted with the dignity of a Bard, but thofe of the moft illuftrious families.

The Bards, the Druids, and Nobility, were fummoned by the fame king, to a triennial feftival, which was thus by him eftablished, to tranfmit to pofterity the authentic fongs of the Bards, as the materials of their future hiftories. In confequence of this, the approved fongs of the ancient Bards were preferved in the cuftody of the king's antiquary; and are appealed to by Keating, as the foundation of his hiftory. Many of them were fabulous; but this circumftance hath no effential relation to our prefent inquiry.

Garments of different colour were appropriated to the various ranks of the kingdom: fo high was the power and dignity of the Baids, that they wore the fame colour with the royal family.

Thus invefied with honours, wealth, and power; and poffeffed of an art which gave them a natural influence over the minds of the people; we find, that about the year 558, they had become infolent, deeply corrupted, and dangerous.

Hence, the reigning king convened a general council of the nobility and gentry (for chriftianity being now planted in Ireland, the Druids were no more) with intention to expel them the inland. They were now become a kind of facred order, or college; which was grown fo pumerous, that one third of the

3

kingdom is faid to have ranked themselves in this class, as a safe afylum for idlenefs and hypocrify. When the principal Bards affembled in a body to divert this impending ftorm, they met, to the number of a thoufand. This, may account for the numbers that claimed to be of the profeffion; for every principal Bard retained thirty of inferior note, as his attendants; and a Bard of the fecond order was followed by a retinue of fifteen. In this convention, after many debates, it was refolved that they fhould leave the island, and retire into Scotland, before the fentence of their banishment was pronounced. However, the fentence was mitigated: they were allowed to difperfe themselves over the island, and promifed to live in a manner lefs offenfive to the public.

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In a fucceeding, and no very diftant period, we find them again grown troublefome to the kings, who complained of them, as a burthen to the people, lazy, covetous, and infatiable. On this, their number was leffened and regulated by the advice of St. Colum Cill, every provincial chief had one learned Bard allowed him in his retinue, to record the atchievements of his family. Their independence, with a competent revenue, was preferved : and this regulation was the standard, by which the fociety of Bards were directed in fucceeding ages.

'Tis to be observed, that in fome unrecorded period, a feparation had taken place in the Bard's profeflion: in the early times, the offices of Poet and Lyrift were united in the fame perfon: in the later ages, it appears, that the Bard only compofed the poem; and that it was fung by a rhapfodift or harper at the public feftivals.

However,