Richard II

's Pred

rchs of the name of Richar

Rich

the Cr

st army, and went with it to the Holy Land, where he fought many years against the Saracens with a view of rescuing Jerusalem and the other holy places there from the dominion of unbelievers. He met wit

g J

rch who immediately succeeded Richard I. was John. John was Richard's brother, and had

Edward died, his son Richard II. was heir to the throne. He was, ho

kings and noble

ressed. The nobles lived in strong castles in various places about the country, and owned, or claimed to own, very large estates, which the laboring men were compel

AN ANCIEN

nature of t

ight had his father to do these things? Why, because his father had done them before him. Very well; but to go back to the beginning. What right had the first man to assume this power, and how did he get possession of it? This was a question that nobody could answer, for nobody knew then, and nobody knows now, who were the original founders of these noble families, or by what means they first came into power. People did not know how to read and write in the days when kings first began to reign, and so no records

n in respect to the

w their kings and nobles to take, in rent and taxes, and in other such ways, every thing that they, the people, earned, except what was barely sufficient for their subsistence, was an obligation which the God of nature had imposed upon them, and that it would be a sin in them not to submit to it; whereas nothing can be more plain

results of

nment sent officers to pursue and arrest him, and then shut him up in jail. If a murder was committed, they would seize the murderer and hang him. It was their interest to do this, for if they allowed the people to be robbed and plundered, or to live all the time in fear of violence, then it is plain that the cultivation of the earth could not go on, and the rents and the taxes could not be paid. So these governments established courts, and made laws, and appointed officers to execute them, in order to prot

cute all other necessary laws for the promotion of the general welfare; but in those ancient times this was seldom or never done. The art of government was not then understood. It is very imperfectly understood at the present day, but in

ngs and nobles

ms and laws of the realm, which customs and laws the kings and nobles could not transgress without producing insurrections and rebellions. Their own right to the power which they

t the right o

s, perhaps-an uncle of the young prince-would attempt to seize the throne, under one pretext or another, and then the nobles and the courtiers would take sides, some in favor of the nephew and some in favor of the uncle, and a long civil war would perhaps ensue. This was the case immediately after the death of Richard I. When he died he designated as his successor a nephew of his, who was at that time only

n Normandy at the time; but he immediately put himse

young

of the young Arthur. They said that Arthur was the rightful king, and that John was on

France becom

claimants, and aiding him to get possession of the throne, they should gain an influence in the kingdom which they might afterward turn to account for themselves. The King of France at this time was named Philip. He determin

t he should like to be a king very much indeed. "Well," said Philip, "I will furnish you with an army, and you shall go and make war upon Joh

the situatio

dy, in relation to France and to Engla

ON OF N

of Normandy and annex it to his dominions while John wa

t Philip proposed, and very soon afterward Philip assembled an army, and, placing Arthur nominally at the head of it, he sent him forth into Normandy to commence the war upon Jo

feated and m

ossession of the town where Arthur was in the night, and they seized the poor boy in his bed. The soldiers took him away with a troop

to induce Arth

th him by offering him his liberty, and perhaps some rich estate, if he would only give up his claims to the crown and acknowledge John as king; but he found that Arthur, young as he was, and helpless as was his condition in his lonely dungeon, remained in heart entirely unsubdued. All that he would say in answer to Joh

r dumb could inherit a crown. To blind young Arthur, then, would be as effectual a means of extinguishing his claims as to kill him, and John accordingly determined

he cell to tell Arthur that they had come, and what they had come for, Arthur fell on his knees before him and began to beg for mercy, crying out, Save me! oh, save me! with

e assassinati

s of the mode o

Arthur was dead. Every body was convinced that John had caused him to be murdered. There were several different rumors in respect to the way in which the deed was done. One story was that John, being at Rouen, where Arthur was imprisoned, after having become excited with the wine which he had drunk at a carousal, w

late in the evening they came to a solitary place where there was a high cliff overhanging the sea. Here John drew his sword, and, riding up to Arthur, suddenly ran him through the body. Arthur

himself one night to the castle where Arthur was confined in Rouen on the Seine. A

he, "and co

that there was a boat there at the stairs, with his uncle and some other men in it. Arthur at once understood what these things meant, and was greatly terrified. He fell on his knees, and begged his unc

n respect to

n some way or other caused Arthur to be murdered in order to remove him out of the way. He justified his claim to the crow

against him

d, after Arthur's death, was no longer disputed, but he was greatly abhorred and hated for his cruelties and crimes, and at length nearly al

t of Ki

G J

a Ch

sign it. This document was called the Magna Charta, which means the great charter. The signing and delivering this deed is considered one of the most important events in English history. It was the first great covenant that was made

ny

d and beautiful meadow on the banks of the Thames, not far from Windsor Castle.

nt afterwar

, refused to adhere to the agreement made by John in their name, on the ground, perhaps, of the deed not being a voluntary one on his part. He was forced to sign it, they said, because the barons were stronger than he was. Of course, when the k

wa

ations of M

successful in the end, and then they always insisted on the vanquished monarch's ratifying or signing the Magna Charta anew. It is said that in this way it was confirmed and re-established not less than thirty ti

he reigns preceding the

pressions practi

for bare subsistence. The most cruel means were often resorted to to compel the payment of these taxes. The unhappy Jews were the special subjects of these extortions. The Jews in Europe were at this time generally excluded from almost every kind of business except buying and selling movable property, and lending money; but by these means many of them became very rich, and their property was of such a nature that it could be easily concealed. This led to a great many cases of cruelty in the treatment of them by the gove

om the old

was put unto this penance, namely, that eurie daie, till he would agree to give to the king those ten thousand marks that he was siezed at, he would have one of his teeth plucked out of his head. By the space of seaun daies together he stood stedfast, losing euerie of those days a tooth. But on the eighth day, when he shuld come to hav

accus

f the cruci

Lex

d every year to crucify a Christian child. One year a mother, having missed her child, searched every where for him, and at length found him dead in the bottom of a well. It was recollected that a short time before the child disappeared he had been seen playing with some Jewish children before the door of a house where a certain Jew lived, called John Lexinton. The story was immediately circulated that this child had been taken by the Jews and crucified. I

ould die. Upon hearing this he was greatly distressed, and he offered to make more confessions; so he revealed several additional particulars in regard to

s extorted

d cruelty of

t was the custom in ancient times, and it still remains the custom among many ignorant and barbarous nations, to put persons to torture in order to compel them to confess crimes of which they are suspected, or to reveal the names of their accomplices, bu

ed from their rulers, for they had no power, and they could not combine together

the nobles

as they called it, to the king. Of course, if the king could find an estate in which there was any flaw in the title of the man who held it, he would claim it for his own. At one time a king asked a certai

majesty will remember that William of Normandy

of the country on some military expedition where they did

id the king, "you sha

d one of the earls, "we w

among each other against the king, and in such cases they were al