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Reaties made by force, or with no juft intention, feldom fubfift long. Richard had prevailed upon the emperor, and the moft confiderable princes in Germany, to threaten Philip with an invafion, if he did not surrender all the places he had taken. Upon which the king, confidering this as a declaration of war, invaded Normandy, and besieged Verneuil; and, as foon as he had the news, Richard paffed with an army, and a fleet of up wards of a hundred fail, from England, and debarked at Barfleur, from whence he marched with great rapidity to give Philip battle. His brother John, who faw himself now at his mercy, refolved, if he could, to recover his favour, and if poffible his confidence. The method he took was fingular, as well as perfidious. He invited the French officers at Evreux to an entertainment, and, when they had drank plentifully, caufed them to be cut to pieces, to the number of three hundred, and placed their heads upon ftakes along the wall; which fo far had its effect, as it convinced the king his brother that a reconciliation would never be in his power. Philip no fooner received this news, than, leaving his camp in the night with a choice body of troops, he marched with fuch expedition, that he eafily furprized Evreux, put all the English he found to the fword, with most of the inhabitants, and burnt the place to the ground. His revenge coft him very dear his army, not being in the fecret of the expedition, finding the king gone, and having intelligence that Richard was very near, September, 1764.

abandoned their camp and their baggage, and difperfed to their refpective homes. There followed upon this a negotiation, which came to nothing, becaufe Philip infifted upon an indemnity for thofe who had taken arms against Richard, to which he would not confent. Philip being again in the field, the Englifh monarch laboured all that was in his power to bring him to a battle; and, at length, finding him in the neighbourhood of Vendofme, encamped fo near that it could not well be avoided, Philip made use of an artifice, which failed him: he fent a meffage to Richard, that, if he remained on the fame ground, he would give him battle; to which the king of England returned for anfwer, that he would find him ready, and that if he failed he would come the next day and attack him. The defign of the king of France was to retire, which Richard penetrated, and began to advance as foon as the meffenger returned, attacked and routed the army on their march, and took the French chancery which then attended the king; fo that, by this unlucky accident, all the titles of the crown fell into the poffeffion of Richard, to the irreparable lofs of the French nation. Philip, notwithstanding, made an irruption, not long after, into Normandy, with fuccefs; and though the pope's legate made great efforts to bring about a treaty, yet they produced only a truce, which lafted but a little time, which was owing to a chimerical project of the emperor, who, with the affiftance of king Richard, propofed to render the realm of France a fief of the empire. Upon 3 O

this

this Richard recommenced hoftilities, which were now carried on with unufual fury on both fides. In a little time, however, both kings perceived that watting their 1195. country, and deftroying their people, muft neceffarily turn to their mutual lofs, without rendering either of them great; and, therefore, in the month of November, they concluded a truce, and the next year a decifive peace, upon equal terms; by which the princefs Alice recovered her liberty, and foon after pouf ed the count of Ponthieu, after be-, ing the fource of fo much difcord and bloodshed between the two nations..

The peace of Louviers, as it was called, from the place where it was made, feemed to promife a lafting tranquility to the dominions, of the, two kings; notwithstanding which it was broke in fix months. Philip pretended to take offence at king Richard's having difpofffed one of, his vaflals, and razed his fortrefs; and, without making any application for redress, renewed the war by befieging Aumale. Richard was very foon in the field, and hoftilities were carried on for fome time with a variety of fuccefs. The English monarch, whom experience had taught caution, and his frequent mistakes addrefs, managed his affairs at this time in a way very different from what he had hitherto done. He detached the count of Thouloufe from the party of king Philip, by giving him his fifter Joan in marriage, the widow of William, king of Sicily; he brought over the Bretons to his intereft, by infinuating to the young duke Arthur, or rather to his minifters, that he might render him his fucceffor; and he engaged Baldwin earl of Flanders in

his alliance, by fuggefting that it was the only way to recover the rich country of Artois, which, in virtue of his first marriage, Philip had reannexed to the crown. By thefe treaties, and by receiving all who were aggrieved, or thought themfelves aggrieved, by Phil p, he caufed him to be attacked on every fide, and brought him into very great difficulties. Philip, however, brought himself into greater; for, giving a loofe to his relentment, and relying upon that good fortune, which his therto had attended him in his exploits,, he expofed himself, like a young man, without any confideration of the numbers he attacked, or was attacked by; which, though not fatal to himfelf, proved exceedingly fo to the beft of his troops, and.1o the nobility moft attached to his perfon, Hearing that Arras was befieged by the count of Flanders, he turned his whole forces on that fide, and marched again!t him with a very numerous army. The count, knowing his inferiority, raifed the fiege, and retired: the king, hurried by his paffions, followed him til he found himself so entangled in a country full of marthes, dykes, and inclofures, that he was unable to advance, or to procure provisions for his army. In thefe circumftances he was conftrained to treat with the count, and, by fair promifes, procured his leave to retire. Upon this Baldwin became a mediator between the two kings, and laboured affiduoufly to make peace. His good intention was not followed by the fuccels that he expected, and all that it produced was a truce for a year, when the war broke out again with greater fury than ever, till at length pope Innocent the third interpofing, the two kings confented to a truce

for

time fays was but ill received in France, where they were by no means edified with the pontiff's intermeddling in their affairs in fuch a manner, and more efpecially by pretending to regulate the fucceffion.

On the death of his brother, John mounted the throne of England, and took poffeffion likewife of his French dominions, in prejudice to his nephew Arthur, who, at the beginning, however, claimed only Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. The old queen dowager Eleanor was ftill living, and, by doing homage for Guienne, prevented that country from becoming the feat of war. She fided with her fon against her grandfon, out of pique to his mother Conftance, who was, like herfelf, a princess of very high fpirit. Philip, under colour of protecting Arthur, invaded Normandy, which John came in perfon to defend; however, from the fickleness of his nature, he grew defirous of making peace at any rate; and Philip no fooner perceived this, than he fet accommodation at too high a price even for John to purchafe, notwithstanding the count of

Flanders, who charged him with breaking his word, had deferted him, and taken part with the king of England. At length the old queen dowager devifed an expedient, which proved fatisfactory to Philip. She propofed, that his fon and heir-apparent Lewis fhould efpoufe Blanch, the daughter of Alonfo, king of Caftile, and the niece of king John; who, in cafe he died without heirs, was to entail the fucceffion to his eftates in France on the iffue of that marriage, and in the mean time was to make a ceffion of the county of Evreux in Normandy, with the Vexin and other territories, the rights of which had been long contefted, to the king. Thefe terms once accepted, the old queen went into Spain to fetch the princefs, who was to be the feal of this treaty; and the marriage being celebrated in Normandy, Arthur, whofe caufe was in fome measure abandoned, did homage to his uncle for the duchy of Bretagne and thus for the prefent, not without a great mixture of injuftice, tranquility was rettored, [To be continued.]

GENTLEMEN,

1200.

Onorius reigned in the weft, and Theodofius the Younger in the caft, when the Franks crofled the

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T. N.

Rhine, under Pharamond, and pillaged the city of Treves. It was about the year 420, when, being

lifted up on a fhield, he was fhewn to the whole army, and acknowledged the nation's chief. This was all the inauguration of our ancient kings.

To Pharamond is generally attributed the inftitution of the famous law called the Salic, either from the furname of the prince who published it, or Salogaft's name who moved it, or from the word Salichame, the place where the heads of the nation met to digeft it. Others will have it to be so named, as having been made for the falic lands. These were noble fiefs which our firft kings used to bestow on the Salians, that is, the great lords of their Sale. or court, without any other tenure than military service and for this reason, such fiefs were not to defcend to women, as by nature unfit for fuch a tenure. Some, again, derive the origin of this word from the Salians, a tribe of Franks that fettled in Gaul in the reign of Julian, who is faid to have given them lands on condition of their perfonal fervice in war. He even paffed the conditions into a law, which the new conquerors acquiefced in, and called it Salic, from the name of their former countrymen.

This law is commonly thought to concern only the fucceffion to the crown, or the Salian lands; but this is a two-fold miftake. It was not inftituted for the difpofal of the crown, nor purely for fettling the rights of private perfons to feudal lands; it is a collection of ordinances for all articles. It prefcribes punishments for theft, for fetting places on fire, for forcery, and acts of violence; it lays down political rules for behaviour, for public government, methods of procedure,

and the prefervation of peace and unity among the feveral members of the state. Of the feventy-one articles which it contains, only one relates to inheritances, and the words are, In the Salic Lands no part of the inheritance is to go to Females: it belongs wholly and folely to the Males.

It appears that all we have of this law is an extract from a larger code; and this is proved by citations from the Salic Law itself, and certain forms which are not found in our remains of that celebrated ordinance. The fagacious gloffographer Ducange fpeaks of two forts of Salic laws, one fubfifting in the times of paganifm, and compofed by Wifogaft, Bofogaft, Salogaft, and Woldogaft, the four chiefs of the nation the other, a correction of the former, by Chriftian princes, in that published by Du Tillet, Pithou, Lindembrock, and the great lawyer Bignon, who has added very learned and judicious notes. Du Haillon, but on grounds known only to himself, boldly avers it to be merely a contrivance of Philip the Tall, to exclude from the throne Joan of France, daughter of Lewis X. He muft furely have forgotten how minutely that question was difcuffed in an affembly of the grandees of the realm, when they unanimoufly adjudged the crown to Philip, to the exclufion of that princefs; fo perfuaded were they of the exiftence of a Salic law, and that the kingdom of France was Salic land. Soon after arofe a like conteft, and the decifion was the fame, The right of Edward III. king of England, did not appear better founded than that of princefs Joan, a daughter of France. Philip earl of Valois was generally acknowledged the legal fucceffor of Charles the

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