with the lives and property of his subjects. No man was to be imprisoned save after a fair trial and by the judgment of his fellows. Nor was the king to take the people's money without the consent of the great council. This gave the nation a hold over its rulers; for if a king was unwilling to govern for the good of his subjects, and thought simply of his own

Renewal of strife.

SPECIMEN OF THE GREAT CHARTER.

selfish interests, the council could refuse to grant him supplies. The liberties which the barons wrung from John are the foundation of English and American freedom to-day. A beginning only had been made, and there would be many a hard struggle yet before the Charter was truly the law of the land. John himself had no thought of keeping his agreement. At first he gave way to senseless rage, rolling

on the ground and biting his fingers after the manner of his Plantagenet ancestors. Then he fell to plotting how he might outwit his foes. He quickly called together his hired soldiers, and turned upon the barons. Taken by surprise, they scattered before him; but they soon made a stand, and in despair of coming to any agreement with this faithless prince, decided to call in the French king; better the rule of a foreigner than of such a man as John. Fortunately at this juncture John died suddenly of a Death of fever brought on by exposure and greediness.

SECTION 2. SIMON DE MONTfort, the NATIONAL
LEADER

Accession of Henry III (1216-1272).

It was well

for the country that John died when he did; otherwise. England's independence might have been lost. Now all was changed. John's only child was but nine. years of age, and it might be hoped that when he was old enough to rule he would make a better king. than his father had done. In the meantime the

John, m. Isabella of Angoulême 1199-1216

Henry III, m. Eleanor of Jane, m. Alexander II

Eleanor, m. Simon
de Montfort

John.

1216-1272 Provence

of Scotland

Edward I, m. Eleanor of Castille, 1272-1307

Margaret, m. Alexander III
of Scotland

Edward II, m. Isabella of France
1307-1327

Rule by the barons.

The work of the friars.

barons could govern England. So little Henry was crowned king and made to sign the charter, and the Earl of Pembroke, a very noble and powerful baron, was put in control of the government. During the

next few years there was peace, and people hoped that England's evil days were past, but in this they were mistaken.

Gray Brothers and Black Brothers. While the
barons were still carrying on the government for
the boy-king, men in strange attire wandering about
the streets began to attract the attention of the towns-
people. Barefooted and clad in gray or black gar-
ments, they made their way two by two into the worst
parts of the towns, even seeking out the dreary
lepers' quarter. These Begging Friars, as they came
to be called, were men who had vowed to spend their
lives in the service of Christ. Unlike the older brother-
hoods, the followers of St. Dominic and St. Francis
did not shut themselves up in monasteries, but
wandered from place to place, living upon what
they could beg, and teaching the ignorant, tending
the sick, and preaching wherever men would gather
to listen. Mostly they frequented the populous cen-
tres, such as London, the capital, Oxford and Cam-
bridge, where great universities were growing up, the
seaports, and the great yearly fairs. The influence
of these preachers of the market-place was tremen-
dous. Not merely did they strive to save men's souls,
but they also taught them how to care for their bodies.
Moreover, they wrote the popular songs, and carried

d

E

the news of the day from village to village. They set people to thinking and talking about what was happening in England. Thus they did for the thir teenth century what the newspaper and public meeting are doing in the nineteenth.

Henry's Misrule. When the king was twenty-five years old he made up his mind to rule as he chose, and he sent away those who had been governing for him. Henry was not a wicked man like his father. He resembled Edward the Confessor more than any other ruler that England has had. Perhaps he took Edward as his model, for he admired him greatly, naming his eldest son after the Saxon king, and rebuilding in his memory Westminster Abbey, the most beautiful of the English cathedrals. But Henry was not a good king. He was weak and selfish. His tastes were extravagant and he was constantly asking money of the people. Indeed, he extorted

HENRY THE THIRD.

it on every pretext. When his eldest son, Prince Edward, was born, he forced all to send him a present,

The royal

extrava

gance.

so that one old monk said, "God gave us this child, but the king sells him to us." Henry was like Edward

The foreigners.

in preferring foreigners to Englishmen, and all the offices at court were filled with Frenchmen, upon whom the king squandered vast sums of money.