whole number did not amount to a thousand, yet, such was the barbarous state of the natives, that they were every where put to the rout. The city of Waterford quickly surrendered; Dublin was taken by assault; and Strongbow, marrying Eva, according to treaty, became master of the kingdom of Leinster upon Dermot's decease. A. D. The island being thus in a manner wholly subdued, for nothing was capable of opposing the progress of the English arms, Henry became jealous of the success of the adventurers, and was willing to share in person those honours which they had already secured. He therefore shortly after landed in Ireland, at the head of five hundred knights and some soldiers; not so much to conquer 1171. a disputed territory, as to take possession of a subject kingdom. In his progress through the country, he received the homage of the petty chieftains, and left most of them in possession of their ancient territories. In a place so uncultivated and so ill peopled, there was still land enough to satisfy the adventurers who had followed him. Strongbow was made seneschal of Ireland; Hugh de Lacey was made governor of Dublin, and John de Courcy received a patent for conquering the province of Ulster, which yet remained unsubdued. The Irish bishops very gladly admitted the English, as they expected from their superior civilization a greater degree of reverence and respect. Pope Adrian IV. had, in the beginning, encouraged Henry to subdue the Irish by his bull, granting him the kingdom. Pope Alexander III. now confirmed him in his conquest; and the kings of England were acknowledged as lords over Ireland for ever. Thus, after a trifling effort, in which very little money was expended, and little bloodshed, that beautiful island became an appendage to the English crown, and as such it has ever since continued with unshaken fidelity. He was The joy which this conquest diffused was very great; and Henry seemed now to have attained the summit of his wishes. undisputed monarch of the greatest domain in Europe; father of a numerous progeny, that gave both lustre and authority to his crown; victorious over all his enemies, and cheerfully obeyed by all his subjects. Henry, his eldest son, had been anointed king, and was acknowledged as undoubted successor; Richard, his second son, was invested with the duchy of Guienne and Poictou; Geoffrey, his third son, inherited, in right of his wife, the duchy of Bretagne; and John, his youngest, was designed as king in Ireland. Such was the flattering prospect of grandeur before him; but such is the instability of human happiness, that this very exaltation of his family proved the means of embittering his future life, and disturbing his government. Among the few vices ascribed to this monarch, unlimited gallantry was one. Queen Eleanor, whom he married from motives of ambition, and who had been divorced from her former royal consort for her incontinence, was long become disagreeable to Henry; and he sought in others those satisfactions he could not find with her. Among the number of his mistresses we have the name of Fair Rosamond, whose personal charms and premature death make so conspicuous a figure in the romances and the ballads of this period. It is true, that the severity of criticism has rejected most of these accounts as fabulous; but even well-known fables, when much celebrated, make a part of the history, at least of the manners of the age. Rosamond Clifford is said to have been the most beautiful woman that ever was seen in England, if what romances and poets assert be true. Henry loved her with a long and faithful attachment; and in order to secure her from the resentment of his queen, who, from having been formerly incontinent herself, now became jealous of his incontinency, he concealed her in a labyrinth in Woodstock Park, where he passed in her company his hours of vacancy and pleasure. How long this secret intercourse continued we are not informed. It was not, however, so closely concealed but that it came to the queen's knowledge, who, as the accounts add, being guided by a clue of silk to her fair rival's retreat, obliged her, by holding a drawn dagger to her breast, to swallow poison. Whatever may be the veracity of this story, certain it is, that this haughty woman, though formerly offensive by her own gallantries, was now no less so by her jealousy; and she it was who first sowed the seeds of dissension between the king and his children. Young Henry was taught to believe himself injured, when, upon being crowned as partner in the kingdom, he was not admitted to a share of the administration. This prince had, from the beginning, shown a degree of pride that seems to have been hereditary to all the Norman succession. When the ceremony of his coronation was performing, the king, willing to give it all the splendour possible, waited upon him at table; and while he offered him the cup, observed, that no prince ever before had been so magnificently attended. "There is nothing very extraordinary," replied the young prince, "in seeing the son of a count serving the son of a king. From this instance, nothing seemed great enough to satisfy his ambition; and he took the first opportunity to assert his aspiring pretensions. The discontent of young Henry was soon followed by that of Geoffrey and Richard, whom the queen persuaded to assert their title to the territories assigned them; and, upon the king's refusing their undutiful demands, they all fled secretly to the court of France, where Lewis, who was instrumental in increasing their disobedience, gave them countenance and protection. Queen Eleanor herself was meditating an escape to the same court, and had put on man's apparel for that purpose, when she was seized by the king's order, and put into confinement. Thus Henry saw all his long perspective of future happiness totally clouded; his sons, scarcely yet arrived at manhood, eager to share the spoils of their father's possessions; his queen warmly encouraging those undutiful princes in their rebellion; and many potentates of Europe not ashamed to afford assistance for the support of their pretensions. Nor were his prospects much more pleasing when he looked among his subjects: his licentious barons, disgusted with a vigilant ad ministration, desired to be governed by princes whom they could flatter or intimidate: the clergy had not yet forgotten Becket's death; and the people considered him as a saint and a martyr. In this general disaffection Henry supported that intrepidity which he had shown through life, and prepared for a contest from which he could expect to reap neither profit nor glory. Twenty thousand mercenary soldiers, joined to some troops which he brought over from Ireland, and a few barons of approved fidelity, formed the sole force with which he proposed to resist his opponents. It was not long before the young princes had sufficient influence upon the continent to raise a powerful confederacy in their favour. Beside the king of France, Philip count of Flanders, Matthew count of Boulogne, Theobald count of Blois, and Henry count of Eu, declared themselves in their interests. William, king of Scotland, also made one of this association; and a plan was concerted for a general invasion of Henry's extensive dominions. This was shortly after put into execution. The king's continental dominions were invaded on one side by the counts of Flanders and Boulogne ; on the other by the king of France with a large army, which the young English princes animated by their presence and popuA. D. larity. But Henry found means to oppose them in every 1173. quarter. The count of Boulogne being mortally wounded in the assault of the town of Driencourt, his death stopped the progress of the Flemish arms on that side. The French being obliged to retire from the siege of Verneuil, Henry attacked their rear, put them to the rout, and took many prisoners. The barons of Bretagne also, who had risen in favour of the young princes, shared no better fate; their troops being defeated in the field, and taking shelter in the town of Dol, were made prisoners of war. These successes repressed the pride and the expectations of the confederate forces; and a conference was demanded by the French king, to which Henry readily agreed. In this interview he had the mortification to see his three sons ranged on the side of his mortal and inveterate enemy; but he was still more disappointed to find that their demands rose with their incapacity to obtain them by compulsion. While Henry was thus quelling the insolence of his foreign enemies, his English subjects were in no small danger of revolting from their obedience at home. The nobility were in general united to oppose him; and an irruption at this time by the king of Scotland, assisted their schemes of insurrection. The earl of Leicester, at the head of a body of Flemings, invaded Suffolk, but was repulsed with great slaughter. The earl of Ferrars, Roger de Mowbray, and many others of equal dignity, rose in arms; while the more to augment the confusion, the king of Scotland broke into the northern provinces with an army of eighty thousand men, which laid the whole country into one extensive scene of desolation. Henry, from baffling his enemies in France, flew over to oppose those in England; but his long dissension with Becket still was remembered against him, and it was his interest to persuade A. D. 1174. the clergy as well as the people, that he was no way accessary to his murder. All the world now began to think the dead prelate a saint; and, if we consider the ignorance of the times, perhaps Henry himself thought so too. He had some time before taken proper precautions to exculpate himself to the pope, and given him the most solemn promises to perform whatever penances the church should inflict. He had engaged at the Christmas following to take the cross, and, if the pope insisted on it, to serve three years against the infidels, either in Spain or Palestine; and promised not to stop appeals to the holy see. These concessions seemed to satisfy the court of Rome for that time; but they were nevertheless every day putting Henry in mind of his promise, and demanding those humiliations, for his offences to the saint, that could alone reconcile him to the church. He now therefore found it the most proper conjuncture to obey; and, knowing the influence of superstition over the minds of the people, and perhaps apprehensive that a part of his troubles arose from the displeasure of Heaven, he resolved to do penance at the shrine of Thomas of Canterbury; for that was the name given to Becket upon his canonization. As soon as he came within sight of the church of Canterbury, alighting from his horse, he walked barefoot towards the town, prostrated himself before the shrine of the saint, remained in fasting and prayer a whole day, watched all night the holy relics, made a grant of fifty pounds a year to the convent for a constant supply of tapers to illuminate the shrine: and not satisfied with these submissions, he assembled a chapter of monks, disrobed himself before them, put a scourge of discipline into each of their hands, and presented his bare shoulders to their infliction. Next day he received absolution; and departing for London, received the agreeable news of a victory over the Scots, obtained on the very day of his absolution. Having thus made his peace with the church, and brought over the minds of the people, he fought upon surer grounds; every victory he obtained was imputed to the favour of the reconciled saint, and every success thus tended to ascertain the growing confidence of his party. The victory which was gained over the Scots was signal and decisive. William, their king, after having committed the most horrible depredations upon the northern frontiers, had thought proper to retreat, upon the advance of an English army, commanded by Ralph de Glanville, the famous English lawyer. As he had fixed his station at Alnwick, he thought himself perfectly secure, from the remoteness of the enemy, against any attack. this, however, he was deceived; for Glanville, informed of his situ ation, made a hasty and fatiguing march to the place of his encampment, and approached it very nearly during the obscurity of a mist. The Scots, who continued in perfect security, were surprised in the morning to find themselves attacked by the enemy, which they thought at such a distance; and their king venturing with a small body of a hundred horse to oppose the assailants, was quickly surrounded and taken prisoner. His troops hearing of his disaster, In fled on all sides with the utmost precipitation, and made the best of their way to their own country. From that time Henry's affairs began to wear a better aspect; the barons who had revolted, or were preparing for a revolt, made instant submission; they delivered up their castles to the victor, and England, in a few weeks, was restored to perfect tranquillity. Young Henry, who was ready to embark with a large army, to second the efforts of the English insurgents, finding all disturbances quieted at home, abandoned all thoughts of the expedition. Lewis attempted in vain to besiege Rouen, which Henry hastened over to succour. A cessation of arms, and a conference, were once more agreed upon by the two monarchs. Henry granted his sons much less advantageous terms than they formerly refused to accept; the most material were some pensions for their support, some castles for their residence, and an indemnity to all their adherents. Thus England once more emerged from the numerous calamities that threatened to overwhelm it; and the king was left at free liberty to make various provisions for the glory, the happiness, and the security of his people. His first care was to make his prisoner, the king of Scotland, undergo a proper punishment for his unmerited and ungenerous attack. That prince was obliged to sign a treaty, by which he was compelled to do homage to Henry for his dominions in Scotland. It was agreed, that his barons and bishops also should do the same; and that the fortresses of Edinburgh, Stirling, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh, should be delivered into the hands of the conqueror till the articles were performed. This treaty was punctually and rigorously executed: the king, barons, and prelates of Scotland, did homage to Henry in the cathedral of York; so that he might now be considered as monarch of the whole island, the mountainous parts of Wales only excepted. His domestic regulations were as wise as his political conduct was splendid. He enacted severe penalties against robbery, murder, false coining, and burning of houses; ordaining that these crimes should be punished by the amputation of the right hand and right foot. The ordeal trial by water, though it still subsisted, was yet so far weakened, that if a person, who came off in this scrutiny, should be afterwards legally convicted by credible testimony, he was condemned to banishment. He partitioned out the kingdom into four divisions; and appointed itinerant justices to go their respective circuits to try causes, to restrain the cruelties of the barons, and to protect the lower ranks of the people in security. He renewed the trial by jury, which, by the barbarous method of camp-fight, was almost grown obsolete. He demolished all the new-erected castles that had been built in the times of anarchy and general confusion; and, to secure the kingdom more effectually against invasion, he established a well-armed militia, which, with proper accoutrements, specified in the act, were to defend the realm upon any emergency. But it was not in the power of wisdom to conciliate the turbulent |