which restrain undue impetuosity, which make suc cess complete and useful, which forbid the impulse to control the reason. He probably rejoiced less in his relation to the royal line than in his descent from Edward the Third the hero, and his fraternal bond with the Black Prince who won the day at Poictiers. The record of an hundred negative Plantagenets was outshone and obliterated by those few mighty hours which passed at Crecy. To emulate the example of his father and brother, and to enhance the lustre which had already made his immediate family immortal, was John of Gaunt's controlling ambition. As a young man and a middle-aged man, he was a hero; as an old man, he was a patriarch. The first part of his life was consecrated to war, the latter part to wisdom.

Still, there were faults in the character of John of Gaunt, as it appears dimly in the far-off centuries. His integrity was not above suspicion; it could not hold against great temptation. His temper was at times morose, always sober. He took no pains to be affable; he cared not to please the people. Those gentle graces which soften and beautify the warrior spirit of the Black Prince, those subtle arts which darken the perfidious character of Gloucester, were equally wanting in their brother of Gaunt, who could neither charm the multitude by natural sweetness of manner, nor by the insinuating hypocrisy of a villain who had his purpose. Mr. Hume says that John of Gaunt was not even enterprising; but he must mean that he was not ambitious of the crown, nor of the direction of the government; for his life was one of almost ceaseless activity. The opulent and flourishing city of Ghent, in Flanders, gave this prince the

title "of Gaunt," that being his native city. There he was born, in the year 1340, during the passage of Edward the Third, with his queen Philippa of Hainault, through the Low Countries on their way home from an unsuccessful expedition against France. On becoming of age, Prince John was created Earl of Richmond, and was admitted to the House of Peers. He married Blanche, the beautiful daughter and heiress of the Duke of Lancaster. The latter nobleman was long one of the leading statesmen of the country, being accomplished, just, brave, and humane; vigorous in war, equitable in government, prudent and loyal as a baron of the realm. He was descended, in the third degree, from royalty; had so long and so well proved himself a faithful subject and loyal counsellor, that he was promoted from an earldom to a dukedom; was a warrior from youth; was well read in science and history; and was esteemed equally by the king and by the people. He had mixed in the great events of his time. He had commanded an army in conjunction with the King of Navarre against the King of France. He had come to the succor of the Countess of Montfort, who, for her infant son's sake, was still resisting King John. He had been Edward's lieutenant in his greatest expedition against the French. The glorious success of that expedition had made Edward exultant and defiant, and he had resolved to crush the prostrate enemy. The Dauphin (John being in London Tower, brought thither by the Black Prince) sued for peace. Edward rejected all proposals from the captive monarch, and demanded terms ruinous to French independence. Lancaster had contributed largely to the success of the campaign. In

every victory his part had been conspicuous and brilliant. He now sought to moderate the exorbitant demands of the king. He reasoned with him, pointed out the folly of over-confidence, the dreadful result of a possible defeat. "My lord," said he, "this war you are carrying on is wonderful to all men, and not too favorable to you. If you persist, it may cost you your life; and it is doubtful to me if you succeed to the extent of your wishes. I advise you to accept the honorable proposals which have been made to you. For, my lord, we may lose in one day more than all we have gained in twenty years." Edward was at last prevailed upon by his cousin. He went out of the camp, and, betaking himself to the shrine of Our Lady at Chartres, vowed to the Virgin Mother that he would accept the peace. The articles were drawn up; the two monarchs, Edward and John, met at Calais; and the result was, that the famous treaty of Bretigni was concluded, which gave back to France her king, untrammelled, and brought the joy of peace to the wearied nations.

Henry Duke of Lancaster, called by his contemporaries the "good Duke of Lancaster," died of the plague in 1360, amid general sorrow and regret. He was laid on the side of the high altar of the collegiate church at Leicester, which his father had founded, and where his wife already reposed. He was the last male heir of the Lancastrian line. By his wife Isabel, daughter of Lord Beaumont, he had two daughters, who survived him. Maude, the elder, married, first, Ralph of Stafford, then William Duke of Zealand. Soon after her father's death she came back to England, and died, it was suspected, by poison. Blanche, as we have said, married John of

Gaunt; this being permitted by a dispensation of the pope, which was rendered necessary on account of their affinity of blood; and as the heir of the house of Lancaster, she brought the title of her father to her husband. Thus John of Gaunt became "time-honored Lancaster." The character of Blanche of Lancaster is but dimly illustrated by the history of the times; we only know that she was one of the beauties of the court, and that she possessed a sweet and equable temper. Her period of married life was short; she died in 1369, soon after the death of Queen Philippa. As the mother of a brilliant line of kings, it is a matter of regret that so little of her history has been preserved. Before she died, she gave to the world Henry of Bolingbroke.

The conclusion of the treaty of Bretigni left a large unoccupied army in the hands of King Edward and the Black Prince. The latter, dissatisfied to return home and yield up the arts of war for those of peace, sought to direct his military power into some other channel, now that no excuse remained for joining issue with the ancient rival of England. An opportunity very soon presented itself, and we arrive at that romantic episode in the history of those times, in which were cast the obtrusive events of John of Gaunt's career, and which have been most efficacious to preserve his name and deeds to later generations.

Don Pedro the Fourth, King of Castile, son and successor of Alfonso the Good, was then holding a dread reign over one of the fairest of the western kingdoms. Even his surname "the Cruel" fails to express the utter ferocity and inhumanity of his character. He should rather have been called "the Atrocious." His crimes knew no bounds, either in

their variety or in their bitterness. Passionate, sav. age, a scoffer, ambitious, despicably selfish, licentious, with a heart of stone, an insolence of manner, and a cunning craftiness of mind; he was the perfect model whence later tyrants might aptly derive a refinement of villany quite unsurpassed, even by the Borgias of Venice or the Médicis of France. At the prompting of his favorite mistress, Maria de Padilla, he murdered the young and lovely Blanche de Bourbon, his queen, cousin of the Queen of France and of the Countess of Savoy. Some say that she was poisoned by his order at the castle of Medina Sidonia; others suggest the more horrible death of strangulation between cushions. In every part of his kingdom he sought the death of the greatest and noblest barons; either being fearful of their influence, or indulging the malicious pleasure which his nature derived from the mere commission of crime. No one, however closely allied to him by blood or fidelity, was safe from his capricious cruelty. He was, withal, an arrant rebel against the Church, which was, to the Castilians of old, an impious crime, far worse than oppression. He disregarded the rules of the sacred authority; seized the episcopal revenues; threw the priests into dungeons; defied the Pope, and insulted his legates; and persecuted the faithful. Pope Urban remonstrated.; King Pedro laughed. Pope Urban thundered forth the sentence of excommunication; King Pedro made a coarse jest.

His father Alfonso* had had a mistress, by name Eleanora de Guzman, who had borne to him three bastard sons, Dons Henry, Frederick, and Sancho. The old King had loved them well, and had given to

* Alfonso XI. reigned from 1312 to 1350.