ford, Earl of Leicester, to attempt an innovation in the government, and to wreft the fceptre from the feeble hand that held it. This nobleman was the fon of the famous general who commanded against the Albigenfis, a fect of enthufiafts that had been deftroyed fome time before in the kingdom of Savoy. king's fifter; and, by his power and addrefs, was pof. feffed of a strong intereft in the nation, having gained equally the affections of the great and the little. He was married to the The place where the formidable confederacy which he formed firft difcovered itfelf, was in the parliamenthoufe, where the barons appeared in complete armour. The king, upon his entry, asked them what was their intention; to which they fubmiffively replied, to make him their fovereign, by confirming his power, and to have their grievances red reffed.-Henry, who was ready enough to promife whatever was demanded, inftantly af fured them of his intentions to give all poffible fatisfaction; and, for that purpofe, fummoned a parliament at Oxford, to digeft a new plan of government, and to elect proper perfons, who were to be intrufted with the chief authority. This parliament, afterwards called the mad parlia ment, went expeditiously to work upon the bufinefs of reformation. Twenty-four barons were appointed, with fupreme authority, to reform the abufes of the ftate, and Leicester was placed at their head. The whole ftate in their hands underwent a complete alteration; all its for. mer officers were difplaced, and creatures of the twenty. four barons were put in their room. They not only abridged the authority of the king, but the efficacy of parliament, giving up to twelve perfons all parliamentary power between each feffion. Thus, thefe infolent nobles, after having trampled upon the crown, threw proftrate all the rights of the people, and a vile oligarchy was on the point of being established for ever. The first oppofition that was made to thefe ufurpations, was from a power which but lately began to take place in the conftitution. The knights of the fhire, who, for fome time, had begun to be regularly affembled in a feparate houfe, now firft perceived thofe grievances, and complained against them. They reprefented that their own own interefts and power feemed the only aim of all their decrees; and they even called upon the king's eldest fon, prince Edward, to interpofe his authority, and fave the finking nation. Prince Edward was at this time about twenty-two years of age. The hopes which were conceived of his abilities and his integrity rendered him an important per fonage in the tranfactions of the times, and in fome meafure atoned for his father's imbecility. He had, at a very early age, given the ftrongest proofs of courage, of wif. dom, and of conftancy. At first, indeed, when applied to, appearing fenfible of what his father had fuffered by levity and breach of promife, he refufed fome time to liften to the people's earnest application; but being at. laft perfuaded to concur, a parliament was called, in which the king refumed his former authority. This being confidered as a breach of the late conven. tion, a civil war enfued, in which, in a pitched battle, the earl of Leicester became victorious, and the king was taken prisoner, but foon after exchanged for Prince Edward, who was to remain as an hoftage to enfure the punctual obfervance of the former agreement. With all these advantages, however, Leicester was not fo entirely fecure, but that he ftill feared the combina tions of the foreign ftates against him, as well as the interhal machinations of the royal party. In order, there fore, to fecure his ill-acquired power, he was obliged to have recourfe to an aid till now entirely unknown in England, namely, that of the body of the people. He called a parliament, where, befides the barons of his own party, and feveral ecclefiaftics, who were not immediate tenants of the crown, he ordered returns to be made of two knights from every fhire; and alfo deputies from the boroughs, which had been hitherto confidered as too in confiderable to have a voice in legiflation. This is the first confirmed outline of an English houfe of commons. The people had been gaining fome confideration fince the gradual diminution of the force of the feudal fyftem. This parliament, however, was found not fo very complying as he expected. Many of the barons, who had 2 hitherto hitherto stedfaftly adhered to his party, appeared difgufted at his immoderate ambition; and many of the people, who found that a change of masters was not a change for happiness, began to wish for the re-establishment of the royal family. In this exigence, Leicester, finding himself unable to oppofe the concurring wishes of the nation, was refolved to make a merit of what he could not prevent; and he accordingly released Prince Edward from confinement, and had him introduced at Westminster-hall, where his freedom was confirmed by the unanimous voice of the barons. But though Leicester had all the popularity of restoring the prince, yet he was politic enough to keep him ftill guarded by his emiffaries, who watched all his motions, and frustrated all his aims. Wherefore the prince, upon hearing that the duke of Gloucefter was up in arms in his caufe, he took an op portunity to escape from his guards, and put himself at the head of his party. A battle foon after enfued; but the earl's army having been exhaufted by famine on the mountains of Wales, were but ill able to fuftain the impetuofity of young Edward's attack, who bore down upon them with incredible fury. During this terrible day, Leicefter behaved with aftonishing intrepidity and kept up the fpirit of the action from two o'clock in the afternoon till nine at night. At laft, his horfe being killed under him, he was compelled to fight on foot; and though he demanded quarter, the adverfe party refused it, with a barbarity common enough in the times we are defcribing. The old king, who was placed in the front of the battle, was foon wounded in the shoulder; and not being known by his friends, he was on the point of being killed by a foldier; but crying out, Iam Henry of Winchefter, the king, he was faved by a knight of the royal army. Prince Edward hearing the voice of his father, inftantly ran to the fpot where he lay, and had him conducted to a place of fafety. The body of Leicester being found among the dead, was barbarously mangled by one Roger Mortimer; and then, with an accumulation of inhumanity, fent to the wretched widow, as a teftimony of the royal party's fuccefs. This This victory proved decifive; and the prince, having thus reftored peace to the kingdom, found his affairs fo firmly established, that he refolved upon taking the cross, which was at that time the highest object of human ambition. In purfuance of this refolution, Edward failed from England with a large army, and arrived at the camp of Lewis, the king of France, which lay before Tunis; and where he had the misfortune to hear of that good monarch's death before his arrival. The prince, however, no way difcouraged by this event, continued his voyage, and arrived at the Holy Land in safety. He was fcarce departed upon this pious expedition when the health of the old king began to decline; and he found not only his own conftitution, but also that of the state, in fuch a dangerous fituation, that he wrote letters to his fon, preffing him to return with all dispatch. At laft being overcome by the cares of government, and the infirmities of age, he ordered himself to be removed, by eafy journeys, from St. Edmund's to Weftminster, and that fame night expired in the fixty-fourth year of his age, and the fifty-fixth of his reign, the longest to be met with in the annals of England. CHAP. Witruggling with the ungovernable fpirit of his HILE the unfortunate Henry was thus vainly fubjects, his fon and fucceffor, Edward, was employed in the Holy Wars, where he revived the glory of the English name, and made the enemies of Chriftianity tremble. He was ftabbed, however, by one of thofe Mahometan enthufiafts, called Affaffins, as he was one day fitting in his tent, and was cured not without great difficulty. Some fay that he owed his fafety to the piety of Eleanora his wife, who fucked the poifon from the wound to fave his life, at the hazard of her own. Though the death of the late king happened while the fucceffor was fo far from home, yet meafures had been fo well taken, that the crown was transferred with the greatest tranquillity. As Edward was now come to an undifputed throne, the oppofite interefts were proportionably feeble. The barons were exhaufted by long mutual diffentions: the clergy were divided in their interefts, and agreed only in one point, to hate the pope, who had for fome time drained them with impunity: the people, by fome infurrections against |