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described; or, if the reader do not happen to possess a flower of
this kind, he may convince himself of the truth of this descrip-
tion by reference to the accompanying diagram (Fig. 121), in
which the little central bodies, marked c c c, are the carpels, or
female parts of the flower; the little thread-like things, p P,
being the stamens, or male parts of the flower; the curved lines,
m m, representing the position of the corolla, and the lower curved
lines, n n, that of the calyx. Hence the meaning of the term hypo-
gynous petals will now be evident, for the curved lines, m m, the
representatives of their position, are evidently below the little
carpels, c c c. Stamens ordinarily numerous; anthers usually
adnatant. The general term stamen, the reader already knows,
is applied to each of the little threads, p p, together with its
appendages; the anther is the mace-like knot at the upper
extremity of the stamen. We have, therefore, to consider the
meaning of the term adnatant, which is derived from the
Latin ad, to, and natus, grown, which, therefore, signifies grown
to a thing by its whole surface; for example, in the buttercup
the anthers adhere to the styles in the manner represented
in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 122). Here the anthers are
the little projections a and b;
evidently they are attached to
the filament, s, by their whole
surface, and not a portion of
the same.

Ovule reflexed. Let us begin
by settling exact ideas respect-
ing the ovule; we will then
treat about its reflection after-
wards. The casual observer of
a buttercup would take the
little central protuberances or
carpels as they exist in a ripened
flower for seeds. They are not
seeds, but fruits; very small,
but still fruits. If the student
possesses a magnifying glass,
he may, on cutting a ripened
carpel or fruit open, find the
real seed inside, presenting an
appearance of which Fig. 123 a
is a magnified representation.

Now, if the fruit be so small, what must the real seed be? Nevertheless, by the aid of a good magnifying glass all its various parts may be rendered evident. Fig. 124 is its magnified appearance.

m

122

n

123

terms applied to designate the botanical order Ranunculaces. The reader will admit each term has had a meaning, and that, when understood, these terms are very expressive. Pernaps he may think that the remarks concerning the manner of adhesion and the number of the petals are all well enough, but he may, at the same time, think that the microscopic examination of the seed and its fruits are a little far-fetched. Nevertheless, the reader will find, when his botanical studies have been a little further prosecuted, that the shape and disposition of the embryo constitute some of the most reliable distinctive marks of various species. We admit, however, that these microscopic signs are, for the most part, unavailable to the botanical student, who must content himself with broader characteristics.

Fruit, apocarpous. This is a proper opportunity for making ourselves acquainted with certain general facts in botany, not necessarily connected with the Ranunculacea, but which a member of that family of plants may serve to illustrate. Referring to the carpels, or the central or female parts of the flower, these will be found scarcely to alter in appearance, except in size, from the first period of inflorescence to the last, when

121

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When the 121. BOTANICAL SECTION OF THE RANUNCULUS.

124

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the perianth or floral envelopes

fall off, and the fruit is developed. This fruit, in point of Pfact, consists of nothing but red carpels.

m

125

122. ADNATANT ANTHERS

OF THE BUTTERCUP. 123. FRUIT OF THE BUTTERCUP. 124. SEED OF
THE BUTTERCUP, 125. REFLEXED OVULE OF THE BUTTERCUP.

seed of a buttercup is cut open,
the observer will perhaps at
first see nothing but a mass of
white flesh, termed by botanists albumen; but if the seed has
been accurately divided from top to bottom, a little thing will
be observed at a; this is the embryo, and, small as it seems,
this embryo is the only portion of the seed which represents the
future plant. The albumen of the plant is really only so much |
food for the young embryo to eat before it has grown big enough
to shift for itself. It consists of a radicle, or representative of
the root, and two cotyledons or rudimentary leaves. This the
reader might have predicted, without finding these cotyledons,
from a consideration that the leaves of buttercups are reticulated,
not straight-veined, from which circumstance they must belong to
the dicotyledonous division of plants.

Still, we have not arrived at the reason why the ovule is said to be reflexed; and, indeed, this determination belongs so completely to microscopic botany, that we should scarcely have explained the meaning of the term, were we not desirous that no expression should appear useless or unmeaning. This reflected | state of the ovule the reader will scarcely see even by the aid of glasses. The word, however, which is derived from the Latin re, back, and flecto, to bend, means bent suddenly back upon itself, as represented in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 125).

Hence, without any other addition, the fruit of Ranunculaceæ furnishes us with the simplest conditions under which a fruit can exist. All fruit may be defined in strict botanical language to be the matured carpel; but in by far the majority of instances the real botanical fruit is masked by the attachment of other appendages. For example, the carpel, or real fruit, bears a very small proportion to the absolute size of an apple or pear. In these by far the greater portion of the fruit, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, consists of a highly developed and succulent calyx.

Referring to our buttercup again, the carpels are observed to remain quite distinct; they never adhere; hence the fruit of a buttercup is said to be apocarpous (Greek, ano, ap'-o, from, in the sense of apart; and каржоs, kar'-pos, fruit), or non-adherent. Had the carpels been united, then a syncarpous (Greek, ovv, sune, together, and каρяos, fruit) fruit would have resulted.

Several other distinctive signs of the natural order Ranunculaceæ might be mentioned; but even fewer than those already enumerated might serve pretty clearly to indicate the true order of these plants; these essential characteristics are the hypogynous stamens and apocarpous fruit. If the student meets with any plants having these characteristics, no matter how different the general appearance of such plant may be from the general appearance of the buttercup, no matter whether the size is different, the shape or colour of the flower different, still it is almost sure to be a Ranunculus. But what is the use of this classification? the reader may ask. Take a supposed case. You are shipwrecked on some unknown island, or you are a farmer in some unexplored land, and you meet with some gay-looking flowers and tempting-looking herbs; the fruit is apocarpous and the stamens are hypogynous; take care of such plants, neither eat them nor permit your cattle to eat them. They are, most likely, poisonous, this being a leading physiological characteristic of the tribe; and in certain species the poisonous principle is so extremely virulent that death would speedily result from the swallowing of a very minute portion. Such knowledge as this constitutes the really useful part of botany, not a mere classification of plants without reference to the properties of the mem

At the base of a horny albumen. If the reader refers to a diagram already given (Fig. 123), he will see that the embryo really rests at the base of the albumen, as described; and inasmuch as this albumen is very hard, it is termed horny. Thus we have almost got through our analysis of the various bers falling under each classification.

Having thus studied the general characteristics of the Ranunculus order, taking the buttercup as our standard of comparison, let us see how far general appearances may alter without the essential characteristics being interfered with.

What plant is apparently more unlike the buttercup than the clematis? Nevertheless, it will be found on dissection to present the essential characteristics of a ranunculaceous plant.

How seemingly different, again, from the buttercup are the hepaticas! Yet their structure at once points out the family to which they belong.

But the Larkspur tribe, including the Delphinium, differ so greatly in appearance from the yellow buttercup, that none but the botanist can see any alliance between them. To his

educated eye, however, the similarity is complete. The circumstance in reference to which the term larkspur is given depends upon a curious formation of one of the sepals of the calyx, something like the spur on a bird's foot; but it is a condition of further botanical importance, thus assisting to indicate a genus, not an order; and colour is of still less botanical importance. Inside the sepals or calyx of a larkspur are four petals strangely shaped, two of them having long tails. Thus the larkspur wears a complete mask; but the botanist at once recognises the flower by the essential signs of apocarpous fruit and hypogynous stamens; and once recognised, once referred to Ranunculaceæ, larkspurs would be justly held in suspicion as poisonous plants, a character which they richly deserve.

Agincourt, 1,55.

COPY-SLIP NO. 81.-AGINCOURT, 1415.

Bathurst in Africa..

COPY-SLIP NO. 82.-BATHURST IN AFRICA.

Canada was discovered, 197

COPY-SLIP No. 83.-CANADA WAS DISCOVERED, 1497.

Devenport, a regal dock yard

a regul dock yard in Deven

COPY-SLIP NO. 84.-DEVONPORT, A ROYAL DOCKYARD IN DEVON.

LESSONS IN PENMANSHIP.-XXII. In our new and advanced series of Copy-slips, in addition to the small letters of the writing alphabet in four different sizes, the reader will find examples of all the various kinds of capital letters in general use, as well as the forms of the numerals or symbols used to denote numbers. It is impossible to classify the different elementary forms of which the capital letters of the writing alphabet are composed, as we did in the case of the small letters given in our first series in large text; but it will be seen, on comparing the different capitals, that the prevailing strokes are the long curved up-stroke with which the letter A is commenced, the thick down-stroke with which it is completed, the thick down-stroke with which the letters B and D are commenced a stroke which enters into the composition of the majority of the capital letters-and the curved down-stroke turned at the top and bottom, of which the letter c is mainly

composed. The learner should practise writing each capital by itself in order to gain facility in forming them, as the sweeping curves of which these letters are composed differ materially from the somewhat stiff and regular succession of up-strokes and down-strokes, all on the same inclination or slope, that he has hitherto been in the habit of making. Instead of giving our readers a simple name or word to copy in the larger hands, or a precept or proverb in the smaller hands, as is generally done in copy-books, we have endeavoured to set before him in each copy-slip some fact that he will do well to bear in memory. Thus, after copying Copy-slip No. 81 some dozen times, he will never forget when the battle of Agincourt took place; while Copy-slip No. 82 will, in all probability, cause him to turn to his "Gazetteer" or "Atlas," if he have one, to find whether there be any more Bathursts on the world's surface besides that which happens to be the principal settlement in the British colony, at the mouth of the river Gambia, in Western Africa.

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HISTORIC SKETCHES.-XI. SIMON DE MONTFORT, AND THE FIRST ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. On the 12th of December, 1264, a great act was done for England, though by the hand of a rebel. Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, son of that stern, capable soldier, and inexorable bigot, who commanded the crusade against the dissenting Albigenses in 1206-8, took upon himself to recognise the existence of a power that was being rapidly developed in this country, namely, the power of the towns and townsmen. He wrote letters in the king's name to all the barons and high clergy, bidding them assemble in Parliament, or in Grand Council, as Parliament was then called, and for the first time he invited the counties and all the important towns to send representatives to London, in order to confer with the lords and the clergy upon the affairs of the kingdom. It is much to be regretted that none of these letters are extant. Few historical documents eould possess more interest for a people who have for 600 years recognised a political constitution with king, lords, and commons, than the writs by virtue of which borough members first took their seats.

But how came the Earl of Leicester to write the letters on his own responsibility, though in the king's name? and what was the object which the earl sought to attain when he sent the writs out? The writing happened on this wise. Ever since the beginning of the young king's (Henry III.) reign, in 1216, there had been a perpetual succession of political troubles. To begin with, the king at that time being only nine years old, it became necessary to appoint a council of regency, a fruitful source of jealousy and heart-burning at all times, and especially so in days when men were wholly swayed by a passionate pride, which was but too ready to take offence, and a spirit of revengeful restlessness which forthwith made them take up arms upon the faintest appearance of real or imaginary slight.

From this regency sprang the never-ending commotions known as the Barons' wars. The barons were too nearly equal in rank and power to admit of one set being in the government while the others were excluded, and the matter was made worse by the ill-advised proceedings of those in power, who availed themselves of the opportunity to annoy and oppress their peers. Besides these causes of disunion, there was another in the fact that the French Dauphin (the eldest son of the French king was always called so, from Dauphiné, of which he was Count) claimed the crown by virtue of an invitation he had received from some of the barons, when King John misgoverned the land. The discontented among the English barons made use of the Dauphin for a time, till the growing unpopularity of the French interference obliged the prince to quit England, which would not have him at any cost.

In order to put a bridle into the barons' mouths, for they were not disposed to. render allegiance to Rome, the Pope declared Henry to be of full age when he was but fifteen, just after the Great Charter, which John had given, had been confirmed by the regent and the barons in a council at Oxford. Soon after this Henry was persuaded to claim the Duchy of Normandy, which his father had lost for the English crown; and the French king (Louis VIII.), who had won it, very naturally refusing to give it up, war was declared, and a campaign followed, which nearly had the effect of losing for England the remainder of her French provinces, Poitou, Gascony, and Guienne; and this, of course, did not tend to make Henry's government more popular. But, to make things worse, just at this time (1231) Henry, who was now twenty-four years old, began to commit an error which Englishmen have never forgiven in their kings. He began to cherish foreigners and to neglect his own people.

This conduct in the king was soon resented by the English barons, who, for a time, laid aside their intestine quarrels, and openly declared their intention to dethrone Henry unless he dismissed his foreign friends. Divided counsels among the confederates, however, helped Henry, and he took occasion to punish some of the rebels, and to bestow their property on the Frenchmen, till the Archbishop of Canterbury (like his prede cessor Becket), in the interests of liberty, threatened to excom. municate him and his unless he acted differently. For a time Henry submitted, and allowed the Primate to rule; but marrying, in 1236, the daughter of the Count of Provence, and the archbishop dying in the meantime, the king returned to his former

ways, and the alien nuisance became greater than ever. The kingdom swarmed with the countrymen of the queen, and with other foreigners. The Bishop of Valence, of the house of Savoy, was made chief adviser of the crown, and another Savoyard was made primate. The English nobles were nowhere, and in deep disgust they would not come to court.

Bitter and deep was the exasperation of the English, nobles and otherwise; and the irritating method adopted by the king to defray the expenses of his extravagant court, and of his liberality to the strangers, served to heighten it. He exacted loans from private persons whom he never repaid; and he levied taxes and imposts quite regardless of the Great Charter which he had ratified, and which forbade him to do so without consent of Parliament. He was so driven for money after an unsuccessful French war in which he lost Poitou, that he had to sell his jewels and plate to the citizens of London. But things grew ever worse and worse. The clergy were at length disgusted, as well as all other ranks, for the king filled those English benefices which he could control with Italians and Frenchmen. His chaplain, a foreigner, had seven hundred livings at one time.

At length the people, backed up secretly by the nobles, took the matter in hand. They resisted the exactions of the royal officers, and they burned the estates of the foreigners, and the king, knowing who were behind them, was afraid to punish. But resistance unchecked is fatal to authority, as Henry found out. The barons, who had hitherto kept in the background, and had contented themselves with keeping aloof from the court, and so discouraging the king's practices, now came to the front, having a strong force to support them, in the shape of an angry and jealous town population, besides their own tenantry and dependents. They had attempted, some years before, to get the appointment of the Chancellor, and of the Grand Justiciary (this office is now extinct, but at this time it was the highest in the kingdom), into their hands, but they had not succeeded: now they revived the proposition with additions to it, and wished to take all power, direct and indirect, out of the king's hands. In unmeasured terms they reproached him in Parliament for his extortions and his misconduct, and flatly refused to give him any money till he should have sworn once more solemnly to observe the Great Charter. They were not to be taken in by a sham request for the supply under the plea of the king's intention to go to the Crusades. Henry had to swear in the presence of the assembled prelates and barons that he would govern according to the charter before he could touch a farthing of the money of which he stood in so great need.

Chief among the barons who resisted the king was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Something has been said of him at the beginning of this notice; let us now look more closely on the man, and fill in the details which are wanting. His father was a French count, whose name is too well known in the history of religious persecution; his mother was a Montmorency; and he himself, the child of French parents, was also born out of England, so that in no sense was he an Englishman except by adoption. The adoption of England as his country came about in this way. Simon's paternal grandmother was Petronilla, sister and co-heiress of Robert Beaumont, last Earl of Leicester of his house. The English barony thus devolved, in default of issue born to Earl Robert, upon the descendants of Petronilla. Simon de Montfort the elder was thus Earl of Leicester, in addition to his other honours, and he did homage for it, and the lands belonging to it, to King John. In consequence of some dispute with that king, he lost both title and lands, and though he afterwards got back the lands he never recovered the title. When Simon died, his eldest son Amauri succeeded him; but the English king refused any longer to receive a homage half of which was owed to the King of France, and Amauri, there fore, was obliged to come to an arrangement by which he should be the liegeman of the King of France, while his younger brother Simon was admitted to homage for the honour and lands of the barony of Leicester. Another fact contributed to make him more and more the Englishman and less the Frenchman. He married, clandestinely it is said, the widowed Countess of Pembroke, sister to Henry III., and the prominence which this alliance gave him forced him to take his place in the ranks of English nobles, with an English nobleman's responsibilities and interests.

But the marriage, clandestine or not, of a princess of the blood-royal with a foreigner did not, under the circumstances already mentioned, pass sub silentio. The barons were furious that their consent had not been first sought; the people beheld in the marriage one more notable instance of the king's partiality for foreigners; and the clergy professed to be scandalised at the marriage of one who, after the death of her husband, had vowed to remain single, and had betaken herself to a convent as a religieuse. On the bursting of the storm off went Simon de Montfort to Rome, and, by dint of strong personal applications, and, his enemies said, by the free use of his money, obtained the Pope's consent to what he had done. He came back, was received with great joy by the king, and in 1239 was created Earl of Leicester in his own right. Then came disgrace, for reasons upon which it is difficult to speculate; indeed, there seems at the present day to have been so little reason that it is not unwarrantable to attribute the disgrace to the caprice of the king. Simon de Montfort left the country, and continued to reside abroad for several years. One lesson, and a useful one, he had learned during his short experience of political life, namely, that he should not put his trust in princes. He never forgot that lesson, and the fact that he had to learn it loosened considerably the ties which bound him to the king, though it does not appear to have diminished his sense of the personal duty he owed him. Thus we find him lending his sword-he "whom the Gascons feared as the lightning"-to Henry during the short and inglorious campaign which that king made against Louis IX. (Saint Louis) in 1242, and in the course of which De Montfort, by his own prowess, saved Henry from being taken prisoner.

For six years after this the Earl of Leicester lived almost all his time abroad. To him, as to the fittest man, was committed the government of Gascony, and the arduous task of fighting and subduing the professional rebels who dwelt there. In spite of gross neglect on Henry's part, in spite of lack of money and men, the earl succeeded in breaking the heads and the spirit of the Gascons; and when he had recovered the province for Henry, and laid it once more at his feet, it was only to be rewarded with charges of dishonesty and malversation in his office as seneschal, or governor. De Montfort had obliged the king too much, served him too well, and the king resolved therefore to crash him and his claims to gratitude together. But for the unanimous voice of the barons against the step, the earl would have been sent to the Tower, and probably thence to his death; but Henry, thwarted in this, abused the earl before the whole court for his misconduct. De Montfort replied by reminding the king of his great services, and of the broken promises with which they had been requited.

"I will never keep promises made to a traitor," said the king. Whereupon De Montfort, unable to control himself, gave him the lie, and told him that but for his royalty he should not have lived to repeat the word. "Who can believe that you are a Christian ?" he continued. "Have you ever confessed ?"

"Certainly," replied Henry. "To what end have you done so, since you have neither repented nor made amends ?"

"I never repented of anything so much," returned the king, "as of suffering you to set a foot in England, or to hold land or honour in the realm."

Thus a great gulf was fixed between Henry and his powerful subject, a gulf which, as will be seen, could not be bridged over during their respective lives. De Montfort went his way and Henry went another, and the former waited for an opportunity to settle his accounts with his debtor. Something has been said of the way in which Henry went. Read what an eminent writer and reviewer (Edinburgh Review for January, 1866) says of it:"He aimed at making the crown virtually independent of the barons. The sons of the men who had extorted the Great Charter were told that it was their business to find money for every rash enterprise which the interests of the king's Continental relations and advisers might suggest; but that they must not presume to demand the resignation of one officer of state, or to murmur if the most important castles of the realm, and the first places in the state, were committed to the hands of aliens. In all this his connection with Louis IX., whose brother-in-law he became, was certainly a misfortune to him. In France the royal power had during the last fifty years, been steadily on the advance; in England it had as steadily receded; and Henry was

ever hearing from the other side of the Channel maxims of government and ideas of royal authority which were utterly inapplicable to the actual state of his own kingdom.”

The straits to which this policy, vehemently opposed as it was by the English barons, brought the king has been partially shown. To the council at which Henry has been represented as having to ratify the Great Charter before he could get a supply, the barons came armed, and with armed followers. Simon de Montfort was the guiding spirit among them, and his influence was all powerful. Acting upon his suggestions, they demanded, in addition to previous requirements, that the government of the kingdom should be entrusted to a council of twenty-four barons, who should continue to govern until the flagrant abuses which had crept in should have been reformed; and Henry, unable to say "No" with effect, was obliged to listen while the barons fixed the 11th of June (1258) at Oxford for the time and place of a meeting at which arrangements should be made for carrying this resolution into effect. In the interim De Montfort and his friends seized the Cinque Ports (Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich), as a precaution against the king's foreign friends; and when the 11th of June came they appeared at Oxford in arms, as their fathers had appeared at Runnymede when they presented the Great Charter for signature. This council, for it was not a parliament, in the modern acceptation of that word, has been called "the mad parliament," for no other reason that one can discover than because the measures agreed to by the members were of a more revolutionary and "thorough" character than were usually debated in such assemblies. Henry was obliged to submit, and the barons proceeded to draw up their resolutions, called the Provisions of Oxford, to the observance of which they required the oath of every lord. By these provisions it was declared that four knights from each county should attend the next parliament in order to represent grievances; that there should be three sessions of the parliament in a year; that the election of sheriff's (officers having much more power then than now) should be annual, and by the votes of the freeholders; that the power of the sheriffs should be curtailed; that no new forests should be made; that the revenues of the counties should not be farmed; and last, not least, that no foreigner should be guardian of any English ward, or be allowed to hold any English castles. It was also arranged, as previously determined, that a council of twentyfour barons, with the Earl of Leicester at their head, should take upon themselves temporarily the government of the kingdom. The royal power was completely subverted.

Had the barons only chosen to act unitedly, and with a single eye to what they had undertaken, they would have had the popular feeling wholly with them, and would have been the means of conferring a lasting benefit on their country. But the old divisions sprung up again, the old jealousies and the old hatreds were revived, and the cause which the barons had in hand was well-nigh lost on the rock on which the friendship of the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester split. Instead of carrying out the much needed reforms, the barons wasted the precious time in striving, after the old fashion, which should be the greater. The king was unkinged, and the twenty-four kings who proposed to reign in his stead could not arrange how they should do so. De Montfort was disliked because he was a foreigner, and because he was too clever for his companions, though as regards his alien origin he set a good example to other aliens by being the first to give up the English castles which had been committed to his care. Unable to settle matters with the other lords, he threw up in disgust and went abroad. In his absence things grew worse. Little was done by the council of government after the first six months, and the people began to tire of them and to pity the sorry plight to which Henry was reduced. After three years the king was so strong in friends that he determined to resume his authority, and the barons, deprived of the Earl of Leicester's influence and ability, were without the means of thwarting him. The Pope, too, was induced to annul the Provisions of Oxford, or rather he released from the obligation of their oaths all who had sworn to respect them; and, armed with these powers, Henry, in the early part of 1262, resumed his authority by means of a sort of coup de main.

Simon de Montfort refused to accept the terms offered by the king when he returned to power, and accepted by the majority of the barons. His rival, the Earl of Gloucester, having died

in July of 1262, he returned secretly from his voluntary exile in October following, and immediately assumed the leadership of the barons' party. Patiently, artfully, he laboured to reorganise their ranks, and he appealed at the same moment to their patriotism and their pride when he showed them that the Provisions of Oxford were as important to the nation as the Great Charter itself; and when he pointed out that their deliberate act had been ostentatiously set aside by a foreign bishop whose authority in such matters they could not possibly recognise. Under Leicester's skilful guidance the barons reunited as one man, and demanded in the spring of 1263 a ratification of the Provisions. Henry refused, the barons drew the sword, and England was once more the scene of domestic violence and civil war. But the barons had it all their own way. Combining their forces with those of Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, they carried all before them, captured the royal castles, imprisoned the obnoxious aliens who were in posts of authority, and laid that part of the country which was devoted to the king under heavy contributions. London opened its gates, and received them with bells ringing and with flags flying, while the king, who had retired to the Tower, was compelled to be a witness of their triumph. There was no resisting them, and at a Parliament, holden in September, 1263, the Provisions of Oxford were solemnly confirmed by the king, and by Edward, the crown prince (afterwards Edward I.).

In a few weeks only all De Montfort's work had to be done over again. Henry ignored his own solemn act so soon as the barons' army had dispersed, and by the autumn chaos was come again in English politics. It was decided to refer the questions at issue to the arbitration of Louis IX., "a king, a hero, and a man," as Gibbon said of him, and at Amiens, in January, 1264, Louis's award was given absolutely in favour of the king. The barons, who had been somehow or other inadequately represented before the French king, were astounded, but they offered to bow to the decision if only the objectionable claim to thrust foreigners into English honours were withdrawn. This was refused, and war once more broke out.

After the signal victory which De Montfort won at Lewes when he captured both the king and Prince Edward, the earl was completely master of the position. He summoned the Grand Council, supplemented by four knights chosen by each county, to meet him on the 23rd of June, and when they met they conferred despotic power upon him, until the differences between Henry and the barons, which were again to be submitted to French arbitration (the alien question excepted), should be settled. Arrangements were in progress for the new arbitration when the Pope interfered, excommunicated the Earl of Leicester and the barons, and declared Henry free to do as he liked.

The declaration must have sounded rather like a mockery to the king, who was a close prisoner to his own subjects, and it served only to show De Montfort that he must go on steadily, knowing that he had nothing to hope for short of success. He did what in him lay towards doing justice to those under him who were most oppressed by the prevailing system. He tried to free the Anglican Church from the tyrannical authority which the Roman Church arrogated to have over her, and he tried to let the voice of all those who were obliged to contribute towards the burdens of the state, heard in the councils where their political fate was decided. Not merely because he wanted their help, but because he deemed they were entitled to them as of right, he sent summonses to the chosen of the counties, to the chosen of towns, and to the chosen of the inferior clergy, to meet him in Parliament assembled. As the exponent of the popular will he could do no less, and he acted as he did out of conviction that he ought to do so.

On the 12th of December, 1264, the writs went out, directed in the king's name, to the barons and prelates as heretofore, to an extra number of abbots, to the deans of cathedrals, and to every county and every important town. Each county and each town addressed sent up two representatives apiece to the Grand Council of the realm, and their members, in common with the lords of Parliament, settled the affairs of the nation. For himself, De Montfort took nothing; he even allowed another, an Englishman, to be made Grand Justiciary, or chief officer of the kingdom, by a Parliament of his own creation.

What was the upshot of it all? Simply this. The barons, weakened by their own mutual jealousies and distrusts, and by the glittering promises of the king, fell away like water from

their best friend, and left De Montfort to fight out their quarrel, not only alone, but against their own opposition. The final result of it all was, that when Simon de Montfort, with his eldest son, and a few good men and true who remained to him, saw the army of Prince Edward approach his army at Evesham, there was nothing for it but to fight to the death against men whom he himself had trained to discipline and war. "May God have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are Prince Edward's," exclaimed the earl as he saw the enemy advancing against him in force, and he entered on the battle with a full conviction that it was his last.

He died, with his eldest son, Lord Basset, Lord Despencer, and many more, bravely fighting in defence of those principles which he had advocated all his political life. His example and his statesmanship survived him, and we must recognise in him the founder of that system of Parliamentary government which it has been our pride and our privilege to preserve to the present hour. We will finish this article in the words of the Edinburgh reviewer, to whose essay we have already referred:-" And when the full survey is taken we shall not forget what is due to the statesman who first struck the key-note of constitutional government, and showed that there was more both of wisdom and of strength in a confiding appeal to a free people, than in the coercive despotism of the first Plantagenets. We shall remember, too, that he applied his principles with a breadth of view and an evenness of hand too rare in later times to the Church as well as to the State, and that almost alone of feudal statesmen he perceived that the just privileges of a national clergy might become, not the chronic difficulty of the State, but her surest and least perishable safeguard. Lastly, we shall bear in mind that, over the coarse ignorance and impure rudeness of the old feudal manners, he bore himself in calm, gentle superiority, cultivated, refined, and unsullied-the very model of an English gentleman: so English in heart, so true to the land of his adop tion, that we almost forget, as we think of him, the parentage that is implied in the name of Simon de Montfort."

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