CHAP. VII. the line of conduct which it and its king should pursue with regard to the succession of the Scottish throne. The indignation with which the English repudiated the Papal intervention, is strongly contrasted with the conduct of the French barons in greedily accepting for one of their royal princes the crown of a living monarch as a Papal gift. These and the other preparations for a warlike expedition were tedious, and, notwithstanding Philip's resentment against Aragon, more than two years elapsed ere he could cross the Pyrenees in person. In 1283 he summoned Edward to lend his aid as Duke of Aquitaine, which the latter evaded by pleading the pressure of the Welsh war. Edward, indeed, wanted in England whatever soldiers Guienne could afford, but the Bordelais complained that as the French king would not allow them to pass armed, it was impossible for their knights to proceed to England to the support of their own monarch. The years spent by Philip in preparations were more actively employed by Peter of Aragon. The republics of Italy had given the example of states contending for supremacy at sea, and the possessor of an island like Sicily could not but mainly depend upon naval victory. Charles had turned his seaports in Provence to the fitting-out of the naval armaments which were to reduce the Greek empire. The King of Aragon had been equally provident and active at Barcelona. Both fleets encountered each other near Malta; the Aragonese and Sicilian under Loria, Provençals and French under Cornut of Marseilles. Not only did the fleets engage, but the two admirals with their respective vessels boarded each other and fought hand to hand, Cornut perishing by the hand of Loria. The defeat of Charles's navy was complete. Loria stayed but to land his prisoners in Sicily, and sailed for the coast of Naples, which he insulted. The Prince of Salerno, son of Charles, commanded there, and was under express orders from his father not to risk an engagement till he should arrive from Provence with a fresh fleet of fifty sail. Young Charles of Salerno, however, could not brook Loria's insults, and sailed from Naples, with all the galleys there, to give battle to the Sicilian admiral. He was unfortunate in his gallant attempt, losing all his galleys, and himself remaining a prisoner. Charles soon after arrived, furious equally at the disaster and at his son's disobedience. Why did he not die?" exclaimed the father, shocked at the advantage to the enemy of holding his son a captive. His wish was well nigh fulfilled by the Messinese, who proposed nothing less than putting the Prince of Salerno to death, in revenge for that of Conradin. But the daughter of Manfred, Constance, Queen of Aragon, saved the prince and brought him off to Barcelona. Charles, inflamed by permanent rage, brought fleet and army once more to the straits, and laid siege to Reggio, which, though on the opposite coast, the Messinese had taken and held. Unsuccessful in this as in his attack of Messina, Charles was obliged to retire to Brindisi and from thence, suffering with fever, to Foggia. Here this most restless and ambitious prince expired, in January 1284. The heir to his possessions being at the time a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, Charles, with his dying breath, besought Philip the Hardy to be the guardian and also the ransomer and protector of the heir of Anjou. Philip was eager not only to respond to the dying wish of his uncle, but to signalise his reign by the conquest of a kingdom. His preparations were complete. Twenty thousand knights awaited him at Toulouse, in the spring of 1285, with four times that number of infantry and followers. On this occasion the French did not attack Aragon through Navarre. Their alliance with the brother of Don Pedro, who was King of Majorca CHAP. VII. VII. CHAP. and Count of Roussillon, not only afforded them a more easy ingress to Spain, but enabled them to be accompanied by their fleet. The little fortress of Elme, at the foot of the Pyrenees, offered the first resistance, and the legate, who commanded one of the French divisions, instantly laid siege to it. Those within offered to surrender, if not released within a few days; but the legate would neither grant delay nor show mercy. He ordered the assault, which was successful, and commanded that no quarter should be shown to those in arms for their country against the orders of the Church. Peter of Aragon was totally without those resources for defending his country that Philip had at his disposal for invading it. The latter had wealth, numbers, the unanimous and zealous support of his subjects, who now began to attack all foreigners-English, Spanish, or Italian with an exclusively national spirit. The Spaniards had not yet awakened to such sentiment, and the French king had, moreover, Don Pedro's brother, with the province of Navarre, and the King of Castille, on his side. Neither was the monarch of Aragon upheld by his subjects, who, like the English of that day, when Edward besought them to help him in war against the French, replied by insisting on greater liberties and immunities from taxation. The legate summoned Peter to submit to his rival, to whom the Pope had given his kingdom. "Such modes of giving and taking a crown cost little," said Peter; "my ancestors purchased theirs with their blood, whoever would take it from me must pay the same price." Peter with a small force kept post on one of the heights of the Pyrenees, and defied the French to pass; nor could they have done so had not a knight of Roussillon betrayed a secret path over the mountains. By it the French descended into the plain below, and Peter being obliged to withdraw, they without opposition laid siege to the strong town of Gerona. The menacing presence of the French then roused the Aragonese and Catalo- Almost immediately afterwards Gerona surrendered to the King of Aragon, who thus reversed the only result of the war. Peter lived to see but not enjoy his victory. He was about to sail with Loria for the conquest of Majorca, when a sudden fever carried him off. Thus CHAP. CHAP. were withdrawn together from the scene the chief actors in the stirring drama: Charles and Peter, Philip and the Pope. And the French monarchy, in its first great and simultaneous attempts to overrun the Alps and the Pyrenees, and subject the principal provinces of the two peninsulas, encountered the same fortune, which ever after attended the first results of similar enterprises. Philip the Hardy left four children; his successor, Philip, and Charles, Count of Valois (the hat king of Aragon) sons of Isabella. By Maria of Brabant he left Louis Count of Evreux, Margaret, afterwards queen of Edward the First, and Blanche, Duchess of Austria. The government of Philip the Hardy is chiefly remarkable for initiating nothing. It was St. Louis who inaugurated the policy of supporting Charles of Anjou, and that led of necessity to the Aragonese war. Philip maintained the same friendly relations with England that St. Louis had done. He and Edward were on the best of terms as their mutual letters testify, each yielding to the other whatever was required to maintain peace if not alliance. There is even some identity to be remarked in the legislative efforts of the two monarchs. Both persecuted the Jews, both passed statutes of mortmain about the same time, both, in summoning parliaments, called the several orders apart; both granted important rights and privileges to the middle classes, with the same view of extracting money from them more easily than from the aristocracy. The liberties which Philip granted or sanctioned to the people of Rouen will be found amongst his ordonnances of 1278. In this respect, as in the consulting of parliament, Philip was more liberal than his sire. St. Louis knew how to attach to him a number of men of all ranks and talents, and to distribute his favours equally. Knights like Joinville, lawyers like Pierre des Fontaines, churchmen like St. Thomas Aquinas, found their place in the good king's intimacy. But |