H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

"I John, by the grace of God, king of England, and lord of Ireland, in order to expiate " my sins, from my own free will, and the advice "of my barons, give to the church of Rome, to "pope Innocent, and his successors, the kingdom

of England, and all other prerogatives of my "crown. I will hereafter hold them as the pope's * vassal. I will be faithful to God, to the church "of Rome, to the pope my master, and his suc"cessors legitimately elected. I promise to pay "him a tribute of a thousand marks yearly; to

wit, seven hundred for the kingdom of England,

and three hundred for the kingdom of Ireland." Having thus done homage to the legate, and agreed to reinstate Langton in the primacy, he received the crown, which he had been supposed to have forfeited, while the legate trampled under his feet the tribute which John had consented to pay.

Thus, after all his armaments and expectations, Philip saw himself disappointed of his prey, and perceived that the pope had over reached him in this transaction. Nevertheless, as he had undertaken the expedition at the pope's request, he was resolved to prosecute the war, in opposition to him and all his censures. He hid before his vassals the ill treatment he had received from the court of Rome; and they all vowed to second his enterprize, except the earl of Flanders, who declared against the impiety of the undertaking. In the mean time, while the French king was resolving to bring this refractory nobleman to his duty, the English admiral attacked the French fleet in their harbours, where he took three hundred ships, and destroyed an hundred more. Philip finding it impossible to prevent the rest from falling into the hands of the enemy, set fire to them himself, and was thus obliged to give up all designs upon England.

A. D.
1213.

the most

John was now once more, abject submission, reinstated in power;

but his late humiliations did not in the least serve to relax his cruelty or insolence. One Peter of Pomfret, an hermit, had foretold, that the king this very year should lose his crown; and for that rash prophecy he had been thrown into Corse castle: John now determined to punish him as an impostor, and had him arraigned for that purpose. The poor hermit, who was probably some wretched enthusiast, asserted the truth of his prediction, alleging that the king had given up his crown to the pope, from whom he again received it. This argument would have prevailed with any person less cruel than John. The defence was supposed to augment the crime. Peter was dragged at horses tails to the town of Warham, and there hanged on a gibbet, with his son.

In this manner by repeated acts of cruelty, by expeditions without effect, and humiliations without reserve, John was long become the detestation of all mankind. Equally odious and contemptible both in public and private life, he affronted the barons by his insolence, and dishonoured their families by his debaucheries; he enraged them by his tyranny, and impoverished them by his exactions. But now having given up the independence of his kingdom to a foreign power, his subjects thought they had a right to claim a part of that power which he had been granting so liberally to strangers.

The barons had been long forming a confederacy against him; but their union was broken, or their aims disappointed, by various and unforeseen accidents Nothing at present seemed so much to forward their combination, as the concurrence of Langton the primate, who, though forced upon the kingdom by the see of Rome, amply compensated for it to his countrymen by his attachment to their

real interests.

This prelate, either a sincere friend of the people, or a secret enemy to the king, or supposing that in their mutual conflict the clergy would become supe rior, or, perhaps, instigated by all these motives, had formed a plan for reforming the government, which still continued in a very fluctuating situation. At a synod of his prelates and clergy, convened in St. Paul's, on pretence of examining into the losses sustained by the exiled bishops, he conferred privately with a number of barons, and expatiated upon the vices and the injustice of their sovereign. He shewed them a copy of Henry the first's charter, which was luckily found in a monastery; for so little had those charters, extorted from king's at their coronation, been hitherto observed, that they soon came into disuse, and were shortly after buried in total oblivion. There was but one copy of this important charter now left in the kingdom; and that, as was observed, was found in the rubbish of an obscure monastery. However it contained so many articles tending to restore and fix the boundaries of justice, that Langton exhorted the confederating barons to insist on the renewal and observance of it. The barons swore they would lose their lives sooner than forego those claims that were founded on nas ture, on reason, and precedent. The confederacy every day began to spread wider, and to take in almost all the barons of England.

A new and more numerous meeting was summoned by Langton, at St Edmundsbury, under colour of devotion. He again produced to the assembly the charter of Henry; and renewed his exhortations to continue stedfast and zealous in their former laudable conspiracy. The barons, enflamed by his eloquence, and still more by their injuries, as also encouraged by their numbers, solemnly swore before the high altar to adhere to each other, to insist on their demands, and to persevere in their

attempts, until they obtained redress. They agreed that after Christmas, they would prefer their common petition in a body; and in the mean time separated, with resolutions of putting themselves in a posture of defence; to enlist men and fortify their castles. Pursuant to their promise and obligations, they repaired in the beginning of January to London, accoutred in military garb and equipage, and presented their demands to the king; alleging that he had promised to grant them at the time he was absolved from his excommunication when he consented to a confirmation of the laws of Edward the Confessor. On the other hand, John, far from complying with their request, resented their presumption; and even insisted upon a promise, under their hands and seals, that they would never demand, or attempt to extort such privileges for the future. This, however, they boldly refused, and considered as an unprecedented act of power; so that, perceiving their unanimity, in order for a while to break their combination, he desired further time to consider of an answer to their demands. He promised that at the festival of Easter, he would give a positive reply to their petition; and offered them the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Ely, and -the earl mareschal, as sureties for fulfilling his engagements. The barons accepted the terms, and peaceably returned to their habitations. They saw their own strength, and were certain at any time to enforce their demands.

Freedom could never have found a more favourable conjuncture for its exertions, than under the government of a weak and vicious monarch, such as John was, whose resistance only served to give splendour to every opposition. Although he had granted the barons assurances of his good intentions, yet nothing was farther from his heart than com. plying with their demands. In order to break their

league, he had recourse to the power of the clergy, of whose influence he had experience, from his own recent misfortunes. He courted their favour, by granting them a charter, establishing all those rights, of which they were already in possession, and which he now pretended liberally to bestow, when he had not the ability to refuse. He took thẻ cross, to ingratiate himself still farther; and that he might enjoy those privileges annexed to the profession, he appealed to the pope against the usurpation of his barons, and craved his holy protection. Nor were the barons remiss in their appeals to the pontiff. They alleged, that their just privileges were abriged, and intreated the interposition of his authority with the king. The pope did not hesitate in taking his party. A king who had already given up all to his protection, who had regularly paid the stipulated tributes, and who took every occasion to advance the interests of the church, was much more meritorious in his eyes, than a confederacy of barons, whom, at best, he could manage with difficulty, and whose first endeavours would perhaps be to shake off his authority. He therefore wrote letters to England, reproaching Langton and the bishops for favouring these dissensions, and commanding them to promote peace between the parties. He exhorted the bishops to conciliate the king, not with me.. naces, but humble entreaties; and promised, upon their obedience, to interpose his own authority in favour of such of their petitions as he should find to be just. At the same time he annulled their associations, and forbad them to engage in any confederacy for the future.

Neither the bishops nor barons paid the least regard to the pope's remonstrance; and as for John's pretences of taking the cross, they turned them into ridicule. They had been for some time pectators

« TrướcTiếp tục »