moved and the bodies exposed to the air, 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 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 coffin 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 grease. These remains are now in the pos session of R. Simpson, Esq. of Bootham. Several conjectures have been formed as to the identity of the occupants of these masonic encasements, and as one of them had evidently undergone decapitation, from his skull having been found on the breast, it was erroneously imagined that this was Archbishop Scroope, the ardent reformer of the fifteenth century, who was treacherously seized by the Earl of Westmoreland, and afterwards beheaded. At Aldbrough, the 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 course York, the city of the Brigantines, as 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 When cities, realms, and empires share date, 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 larem que." "Hither for gain from various foreign parts Come trading people, seeking opulence, And a secure abode in wealthy At this period, York was the seat not only of trade, but of letters; she was, indeed, the Athens of that dark age, and the library collected by Archbishop Egbert, and placed in the cathedral, ranked amongst the first in Christendom. Aleuin, in one of his letters to his royal pupil, Charlemagne, re * See vol. 1. page iv. quests that scholars may be sent from France, to copy the works deposited here, "that the garden of letters may not be shut up in York; but that some of its fruits may be placed in the paradise of Tours."* William, of Malmsbury, speaking of this library, says, "it is the noblest repository and cabinet of arts and sciences in the whole world." tains, where their posterity, according to Welsh history, have ever since maintained their station. It does not belong to this work to trace the events of the Heptarchy, of which period it has been observed, with some justice, that if "the old wives' tales and friars' dreams" be expunged, this volume of history will be reduced to a page. But it is Among the most celebrated of the Bri-proper to record, that in the year 867, the tish monarchs before the conquest, was King Arthur. This monarch expelled the Saxons from York, and almost from the Island, in the year 520, by the sanguinary battle of Baden Hills, in which 90,000 of the enemy were slain. Arthur, after the defeat of the Saxons, undertook an expedition into Scotland, with a determination to destroy that ancient seat of enmity from one end to the other. From this purpose he was dissuaded by the Bishops. The Scots had just received the gospel, and it was represented to the King, by his spiritual guides, in the true spirit of that religion which he professed, that Christians ought not to spill the blood of Christians-a maxim, that has unfortunately for the world, not been sufficiently inculcated in modern times. Arthur, after his expedition to Scotland, returned to York, where he convened an assembly of the clergy and people, to heal the divisions, and to regulate the affairs of the church. At this time, this great monarch, and his clergy, with the nobility, and the soldiers, kept their Christmas in York. This was the first festival of the kind ever celebrated in Britain, and from which, all those ever since held have taken their model. "The latter end of December," says the historian,† "was spent in mirth, jollity, drinking, and the vices that are too often their consequences, so that the representations of the old heathenish feasts, dedicated to Saturn, were here again revived. Gifts were sent mutually from one to another, frequent invitations passed between friends, and domestic offenders were not punished. All this was to celebrate the nativity of Christ, then, as they say, born." Arthur, after all his glory, had the misfortune to be slain in a rebellion of his own subjects, and by the hands of his own nephew. From his death, violent dissentions arose among the British princes, and the Saxons again so completely prevailed, as to gain an entire conquest over the whole kingdom. Those Britons, who would not submit to pass under the Saxon yoke, sought shelter in the Cambrian moun * Epist. Alcuini ad Carolum Regem. Coll. I. page 399. † Buchanan. Danes, who had long envied the happiness of their neighbours, the Saxons, in the possession of the greatest and the wealthiest island in Europe, fitted up a mighty fleet, and entered the Humber in the spring, with a strong invading army, under the command of Hinguar and Hubba. Their first operation was against York, where a sanguinary battle was fought in the midst of the city, and the two Saxon kings, Osbert and Ella, being slain in the engagement, the city fell into the hands of the Danish invaders. In the conflict, York was reduced to a heap of ruins, by the enraged barbarians, who spared neither palace nor cottage, age, or sex. "Matrons and virgins," says Hoveden," were ravished at pleasure. The husband and wife either dead or dying, were tossed together. The infant snatched from its mother's breast was carried to the threshold, and there left butchered at its parents' door, to make the general cry more hideous." For some ages the struggle was maintained in England between the Saxons and the Danes, but in the year 1010 the power of the former was extinguished. The Danes, under Sweyn, their sovereign, advanced into Northumbria, with a powerful army, and pitched their tents on the banks of the Ouse, To this place, Ethelred, the Anglo-Saxon monarch, with an army strengthened by a number of Scots, marched to give them battle. The engagement, which took place near York, was bloody and well contested. Ethelred fought to retain, and Sweyn to obtain a kingdom. Victory at length declared for the Danes, and Ethelred, with a few of his followers, seizing a boat, passed over the Ouse, and fled into Normandy, leaving his crown and his kingdom to the conqueror. The Danish viceroys, or Comites Northumbriæ, took up their residence at York, while their sovereigns not unfrequently made this city the royal residence. The death of Sweyn, who breathed his last at Gainsborough, took place in the year 1014, and he was succeeded by his son, Canute, the most powerful monarch of his time. The reproof given by this King to his fawning courtiers, is so just and impressive, that its memory has survived through eight centuries. Some of these flatterers breaking out in expressions of admiration of his power and grandeur, exclaimed, that to him, every thing was possible. Upon which, Canute ordered his chair to be placed upon the sea-shore, while the tide was rising; as the waters approached, he commanded them with a voice of authority to retire, and to obey the lord of the ocean. For some time he feigned to sit in expectation of their submission, but the sea still advanced towards him, and began to wash him with its billows; 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." own individual prowess the whole British army at bay for three hours! This hero being at length slain by a dart, the English army passed the bridge, and attacking the enemy in their trenches, sword in hand, vietory declared on the side of Harold. The King of Norway and Tosti were both slain; and their army, which consisted of sixty thousand men, suffered so complete an overthrow, that though from five to six hundred vessels were necessary to bring them to England, twenty vessels were sufficient to carry back the miserable remains that survived the slaughter. This battle, which commenced at sun rise, and did not terminate 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.f Harold's triumph was of short duration. Returning to York, on the night of the battle, he gave orders for solemn feasts and rejoicings to begin the next day. Scarcely had these demonstrations of public joy commenced, 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 interests, and may be regarded as the immediate 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 intelligeuce 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 approach, the invaders quitted the city, and took up a strong position to the East of York, having the Derwent in front, the Ouse to the right, and their navy on the left. Harold, disregarding the advantageous position of the enemy, determined to cross the wooden bridge which passed over the river, and to attack them in their trenches. His army was put in motion early in the morning, but an impediment, as 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 During the heptarchy, York was reduced from the capital of a kingdom, to the capital of an earldom. In this state it remained till the reign of Edward, the Confessor, in whose time it suffered a still greater revolution: for though it is the generally received opinion, that Alfred first divided England into counties, shires, or shrievealties, towards the close of the ninth century, and appointed a chief officer to govern them, called a Shire-reve, or Sheriff, + Camden. place in the north, earlier than the middle 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, Richmundeseire, Loncastreseire, Caplande, since called the Bishoprick o & of Durham, Iestmerilonde & 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 Malcolın, 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 with all the means which the Conqueror could command. During this time, Waltheof 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 obliged to capitulate. At first the Conqueror affected to display some degree of forbearance, 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 garrison, which consisted of English and Scotch troops, notwithstanding the articles of capitulation, all perished, "and this noble city," says William, of Malmsbury, himself a Norman, "was wasted by famine, fire, and sword to the very roots." Nor did the tyrant stop here: he laid the whole country waste, from the Humber to the Tweed, and rendered it so complete a scene of desolation, 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 miserable 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 conquest the city of London was inferior to Vork, 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 unregistered in the Domesday book, many of the estates of the nobles in Yorkshire, as in other parts of the kingdom, he wrested from their | This trade continued to prevail for some ages rightful owners and bestowed upon his rapacious followers 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 eity, and Trinity church in the suburbs. At this awful juneture, David, king of Scotland 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. For seven centuries York had exhibited a series of sanguinary wars, and repeated desolations; from this period it enjoyed, for isome 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 11. 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 members 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, carding, and weaving of the said coverlets," &c. * See Northallerton. afterwards, but in the year 1736, when the 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. 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 name, in this city, in the year 1160, in which Malcolm, king of Scotland, appeared, and did homage for the territories which he held of the English crown. wards, the same king called another parliaEleven years afterment, or convention of the bishops and barons at York, to which he summoned Williaın 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 enflamed 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 engendered in the minds of the people an implacable 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 |