site of ancient Isurium, numerous specimens of tesselated pavements have often been found, but it was not till the year 1814, that any remains of this kind were ever discovered at York. In the month of March in that year, a beautiful specimen of this Mosaic work was discovered adjoining the rampart within Micklegate bar, which has been cleared and enclosed, and is, along with a number of other Roman remains, preserv. ed for the inspection of the curious.

The decline of the Roman power obliged them to abandon their distant conquests, and in the reign of Theodosius the younger, the empire sunk so fast, that Britain, and of

it was called, was no longer a residence for
the "lords of the universe." Rome and
York both declined together, and to them
might be applied the reflection of the old
poet, on the fall of Carthage:
Unhappy men! to mourn our lives' short

date,

When cities, realms, and empires share our fate.

During the period between the evacuation of Britain by the Romans, and the conquest of this island by the Normans, the city of York partook largely in the vicissitudes to which the country was exposed. The Picts and the Scots, the Saxons and the Danes, each in succession, erected their standards before its gates, and obtained possession of the city. The general history of Northumbria, during these early ages, is already sketched in this work, under the head of YORKSHIRE; and it will suffice here, to remark of this epoch, that York, though shorn of that splendour which imperial Rome conferred, still maintained a distinguished rank as a metropolitan city, and as the centre of commercial attraction. The celebrated instructor of Charlemagne, who wrote in the ninth century, thus speaks of York:

"Quo variis populis et regnis undique lecti, Spe lucri venunt quærentes divite terra, Divitias, sedem sibimet lucrumque laremque.'

moved and the bodies exposed to the air, they crumbled into dust. The singular form of these coffins, the rough manner in which they were constructed; and their depth in the earth, prove their great antiquity, and confirm the belief that they are vestiges not merely of Roman or Saxon times, but that they contain remains of our Aboriginal ancestors. On Monday, the 17th of August, 1807, while the workmen were preparing the foundations for a building near Barstow's Hospital, in the suburbs of York, a Roman vault presented itself about four feet from the surface, which was eight feet long by five feet wide, and six feet high, built of stone and arched over with Roman brick. A cof-course York, the city of the Brigantines, as fin of rag stone grit, about seven feet long, occupies nearly the whole of the vault, and in the coffin is a human skeleton entire, with the teeth complete, supposed to be the remains of a Roman lady, consigned to the mansions of the dead fourteen centuries ago. Near the skull, which is remarkably small, was found a lachrimatory, in which vessels the ancients deposited the tears they shed for their departed friends. The workmen also found at the same time, not far from the vault, a large red coloured urn, in which were ashes, and the partially burnt bones of a human body. The whole collection is preserved for the inspection of the curious, and may be seen in the place where they have lain undisturbed, while upwards of forty generations of men have passed over the stage of human existence. In a field without Bootham bar, two Roman stone coffins were dug up in March, 1813, each containing a skeleton entire, with the teeth, the most imperishable part of man when dead, and the most liable to decay when living, entire. These coffins are now deposited in the eathedral amongst other sepulchral antiquities, as objects of interest to the curious. In May in the same year, two stone coffins seven feet in length, and three feet wide, cut out of a solid block of stone which was left six inches thick, were dug up in a gravel pit near Fulford church, in each of which was a human skeleton, and a small quantity of a white substance resembling lime saturated with "Hither for gain from various foreign grease. These remains are now in the posparts session of R. Simpson, Esq. of Bootham. Come trading people, seeking opulence, Several conjectures have been formed as to And a secure abode in wealthy land." the identity of the occupants of these ma- At this period, York was the seat not only sonic encasements, and as one of them had of trade, but of letters; she was, indeed, evidently undergone decapitation, from his the Athens of that dark age, and the library skull having been found on the breast, it collected by Archbishop Egbert, and placed was erroneously imagined that this was in the cathedral, ranked amongst the first Archbishop Scroope, the ardent reformer of in Christendom. Aleuin, in one of his the fifteenth century, who was treacherously letters to his royal pupil, Charlemagne, reseized by the Earl of Westmoreland, and afterwards beheaded. At Aldbrough, the

* See vol. 1. page iv.

out in expressions of admiration of his own individual prowess the whole British power and grandeur, exclaimed, that to him army at bay for three hours! This hero every thing was possible. Upon which, being at length slain by a dart, the English Canute ordered his chair to be placed upon army passed the bridge, and attacking the the sea-shore, while the tide was rising; as enemy in their trenches, sword in hand, viethe waters approached, he commanded them tory declared on the side of Harold. The with a voice of authority to retire, and to King of Norway and Tosti were both slain; obey the lord of the ocean. For some time and their army, which consisted of sixty he feigned to sit in expectation of their sub- thousand men, suffered so complete an mission, but the sea still advanced towards overthrow, that though from five to six hunhim, and began to wash him with its bil-dred vessels were necessary to bring them to lows; on which he turned to his courtiers, and said, "Behold how feeble and impotent is man. Power resideth in one Being alone, in whose hands are the elements of nature, and who alone can say to the ocean-Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, and who can level with his nod the most towering piles of pride and ambition."

Ha

England, twenty vessels were sufficient to
carry back the miserable remains that sur-
vived the slaughter. This battle, which
commenced at sun rise, and did not termi-
nate till three o'clock in the afternoon, was
fought at Stamford Bridge, on the 23d of
September, 1066. The spoil taken by the
victors was immense, and it is represented,
that the gold alone which the Norwegians
left behind them, was as much as twelve
men could carry on their shoulders.
rold's triumph was of short duration. Re-
turning to York, on the night of the battle,
he gave orders for solemn feasts and re-
joicings to begin the next day. Scarcely
had these demonstrations of public joy com-
menced, when a messenger arrived from the
South, and announced to Harold, as he sat
in state, at a magnificent entertainment,
that Duke William of Normandy, had
landed with a mighty army, at Pevensey, in
Sussex. The recently acquired victory of
Harold, though great and honourable,
proved in the main prejudicial to his in-
terests, and may be regarded as the imme
diate cause of his ruin. He had lost many
of his bravest officers and soldiers in the
action; and he had disgusted the survivors,
by refusing to distribute among them the
Norwegian spoils. On receiving the intelli-
geuce of the arrival of William, the King
marched at the head of his army, through
London, to Sussex, in order to expel the
invaders. Here the sanguinary battle of
Hastings was fought, only nine days after
the battle of Stamford Bridge, and here
Harold lost both his kingdom and his life.

On the death of Canute, in 1035, Harold, his second son, surnamed Harefoot, succeeded to his British dominions; this monarch was succeeded by Hardicanute, a licentious tyrant, who died two years after his accession, at the nuptials of a Danish lord. Edward, the Confessor, though not the hereditary descendant, was raised to the throne by the voice of the people, to the exclusion of Sweyn, the Danish claimant, and was the last of the Saxon line who ruled in England. Harold, the son of Godwin, succeeded Edward, but was opposed by his brother Tasti, at whose instance, Harfager, the King of Norway, undertook the invasion of this kingdom, with a numerous and well appointed army, embarked on board a kind of Norwegian armada. This mighty armament entered the Humber, in the autumn of 1066, and the ships sailed up the Ouse, as far as Riccall, within ten miles of York; where they were moored. Having landed their forces, the invaders marched to York, which city they took by storm, after a desperate conflict, fought at Fulford, on the eve of St. Matthew, with Morcar, the governor, and Edwin, Earl of Chester. Harold no sooner heard of the arrival of the Norwegians, than he marched to York, at the head of a powerful army. On his apDuring the heptarchy, York was reproach, the invaders quitted the city, and duced from the capital of a kingdom, to the took up a strong position to the East of capital of an earldom. In this state it reYork, having the Derwent in front, the mained till the reign of Edward, the ConOuse to the right, and their navy on the fessor, in whose time it suffered a still left. Harold, disregarding the advantage- greater revolution: for though it is the geous position of the enemy, determined to nerally received opinion, that Alfred first cross the wooden bridge which passed over divided England into counties, shires, or the river, and to attack them in their shrievealties, towards the close of the ninth trenches. His army was put in motion century, and appointed a chief officer to early in the morning, but an impediment, as govern them, called a Shire-reve, or Sheriff, the historians say, was interposed by a yet it does not appear that this change took champion, in the Norwegian army, who * See Stamford Bridge in this volume. placing himself on the bridge, kept by his

+ Camden.

place in the north, earlier than the middle with all the means which the Conqueror

of the eleventh century, when the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, which extended from the Humber to the Tweed, and from the German ocean to the Irish sea, was split into shires under the designation of Eurewickscire, Kichmundeseire, Loncastreseire, Caplande, since called the Bishoprick of Durham, Westmerilonde & Cumbrelonde,

No sooner was William the Conqueror, established on the English throne, than he showed that his policy was to root out the ancient nobility, and to degrade the native inhabitants of the humbler classes, to the situation of miserable slaves. In the North, where the spirit of liberty and independence has always been cherished, the tyrant was determined to rivet his chains. For this purpose, Robert, the Norman, was sent down to Durham, with a guard of 700 men, but the inhabitants rose upon the governor, and exterminated both him and his guard. William once more drew his conquering sword, which he was not soon inclined to sheathe. He marched into York, at the head of a powerful army, and the city with its two castles, were speedily garrisoned with Norman soldiers. The Saxon nobles in this city had manifested a disposition to shake off the Norman yoke, and on the arrival of William, they fled into Scotland, where they were joined by Malcolin, the Scottish king. The Danes soon after united in the confederacy, and arrived in the Humber with a powerful army, under the command of Osbern, brother to the Danish king. Their first operation was against York, which they carried on the 19th of September, 1069, sword in hand, in the midst of flames, enkindled by the Normans, to prevent the suburbs from being made useful to the besiegers. In this fire, the invaluable library of the cathedral was, to the irreparable injury of learning, totally destroyed. William no sooner heard that the garrison of York had been taken by his enemies, and that three thousand of his troops had been put to the sword, than he hastened, at the head of a powerful army, into the North and on his march thither was often heard to swear, "by God's splendour," which was his favourite oath, that he "would not leave a soul of them alive." On his arrival in Yorkshire, he had the address to corrupt Osbern, the Danish general, and to induce him to quit the country with his army, leaving his allies to the vengeance of the ruthless tyrant. For six months the seige of York was prosecuted

could command. During this time, Wal-
theof the governor, and his troops displayed
prodigies of valour and constancy; but at
length famine began to rage in the city with
so much violence that the garrison was ob-
liged to capitulate. At first the Conqueror
affected to display some degree of forbear-
ance, but it was only the better to secure
his victims; a pretence was soon found to
dispatch the gallant Waltheof, by the hand
of the executioner; and, it is said, that he
was the first nobleman ever beheaded in
England. Upon the ancient kingdom of
Northumbria, the Norman looked as the
nest of rebellion. Under this impression,
and in order to gratify his own blood-thirsty
nature, he razed the city of York to the
ground, and with it fell all the principal
nobility and gentry in the North, and a
large portion of the inhabitants. The gar
rison, which consisted of English and Scotch
troops, notwithstanding the articles of ca
pitulation, all perished, " and this noble
city," says William, of Malmsbury, him.
self a Norman, "was wasted by famine,
fire, and sword to the very roots."
" Nor did
the tyrant stop here: he laid the whole coun-
try waste, from the Humber to the Tweed,
and rendered it so complete a scene of deso-
lation, that for nine years neither the plough
nor the spade was put into the ground; and
such was the wretched state of the inhabi
tants who escaped the sword, that they
were forced to eat dogs and cats, horses, and
even human flesh, to preserve their miser-
able existence. This account is confirmed
by Roger Hoveden, and Simeon of Durham,
as well as by the concurrent testimony of all
the historians of those times, and from that
day to this, York has never regained its
ancient splendour. Before the Norman con-
quest the city of London was inferior to
York,* and the author of the Polychronicon
writes, that before it was burnt by William,
York seemed as fair as the city of Rome,
and was justly enough, by William Harrison,
stiled, Altera Roma. According to Leland,
the suburbs at this time extended to the
towns a mile round the city.

Conscious of the detestation in which he was held, William entertained a perpetual jealousy of the English people. In the wantonness of power he obliged them every night to extinguish their fires and candles, at the ring of a bell, called "The Curfew:" he also caused a survey to be made of all the lands in the kingdom, which were unregis tered in the Domesday book, many of the estates of the nobles in Yorkshire, as in other * J. Hardynge.

parts of the kingdom, he wrested from their | This trade continued to prevail for some ages rightful owners and bestowed upon his rapa- afterwards, but in the year 1736, when the cious followers author of the Eboracum published his book, York was no longer a manufacturing city, nor has the staple trade, which has made the West-Riding its principal seat, ever returned to this ancient capital.

For half a century the history of York is almost a blank, but in the reign of Stephen, in the year 1137, it appears once more to have reared its head, when it was again destroyed by an accidental fire, which burnt down the cathedral, the abbey of St. Mary's, with thirty-nine parish churches in the city, and Trinity church in the suburbs. At this awful juncture, David, king of Scot-name, in this city, in the year 1160, in which land entered England, at the head of a powerful army, and ravaged and laid waste the country to the very gates of the city of York. Roused into energy by these accumulated disasters, Thurstan, the archbishop, who acted as Stephen's viceroy in the north, summoned the neighbouring barons, and exhorted them to repel the enemy. Enraged to see their country desolated by the invaders, they each of them in their district collected a considerable force, which assembled at Northallerton, and totally defeated the Scotch in the famous Battle of the Standard.

In the ages following the Norman conquest, York was often visited by the kings of England. Henry II. held the first parliament ever mentioned in history by that

Malcolm, king of Scotland, appeared, and
did homage for the territories which he held
of the English crown.
wards, the same king called another parlia
Eleven years after-
ment, or convention of the bishops and ba-
rons at York, to which he summoned Williain
the successor of Malcolm, to do homage for
the kingdom of Scotland; on which occasion
the Scotch king deposited on the altar of St.
Peter, in the cathedral church, his breast
plate, spear, and saddle, in memorial of his
subjection.

At the commencement of the reign of Richard I. York became the scene of a horrible persecution and massacre, which will be ever memorable in the annals of this city. The prejudices of the age had stigmatized the lenders of money on interest with the odious name of usurers, and the crusades to the holy land to rescue Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens, had en flamed the zeal of the nation against every body of men not bearing the name of christian. The Jews were a people first introduced into England, by William the Conqueror, and in York, where a number of them settled soon after the conquest, they might be viewed with some portion of that horror which the bloody deeds of the tyrant so naturally excited. These accumulated causes of hostility en

For seven centuries York had exhibited a series of sanguinary wars, and repeated desolations; from this period it enjoyed, for some ages, the blessings of peace, and again rose to wealth and importance. In less than fifty years after the terrible conflagration in the reign of Stephen, Henry II. under pretence of raising money for the holy wars, imposed upon his subjects a contribution of one-tenth of their moveables, and demanded from the city of York, one-half of the sum that he required from London. At that period York was eminent for trade, and in the 27th year of the reign of Edward III. the staple trade of wool, which had before been at Bruges, in Flanders, was fixed in this city. Many of the merchants of York were mem-gendered in the minds of the people an imbers of "the corporation of the staple," established at Calais, and the woollen manufacture flourished in York so late as the reign of Henry VIII. In that reign an act was passed regarding one branch of the manufacture, the preamble of which sets forth, that "Whereas the city of York being one of the ancientest and greatest cities within the realm of England, before this time hath maynteyned and upholden by divers and sundry handicrafts there used, and most principally by making and weaving coverlets and coverings for beds, and thereby a great number of the inhabitants and people of the said city and suburbs thereof, and other places within the city of York, have been daily set on work in spinning, dying, cardng, and weaving of the said coverlets," &c. * See Northallerton.

placable hatred towards them, and the claims which they had upon the estates of those to whom they had lent money aggravated the public hostility. To obtain popular favour, the king, who was crowned with great pomp at Westminster, strictly enjoined and commanded that no Jew whatever should appear at his coronation. Notwithstanding this order two of the principal Jews in York, of the names of Benedict and Jocenus went from hence to London, with a pompous retinue in order to meet their brethren, and to present presents to the king, as a peaceoffering, at his coronation. On the day of the ceremonial, many of the Jews mixed in the crowd, and the populace, with a savage ferocity, commenced a general massacre upon them in London, plundered their property, burnt down their houses, and destroyed