provided for the extension and continuation of their own exorbitant authority, at the expense both of the king and the people. They enjoyed the supreme pow er near three years; and had visibly employed it, not for the reformation of the state, their original pretence for assuming it, but for the aggrandizement of themselves and families. The breach of trust was evident to all the world: every order of men in England felt it, and murmured against it; and the pope, in order to gain the favour of the nation, ab solved the king and all his subjects, from the oath which they had taken to observe the provisions of Oxford'. A. D. 1261. As soon as Henry received the pope's absolution from his oath, accompanied with threats of excommunication against all his opponents, he resumed A. D. 1262. the government; offering, however, to main. tain all the regulations made by the reforming barons, except those which entirely annihilated the royal authority.. But these haughty chieftains could not peaceably resign that uncontrolled power, which they had A. D. 1268. so long enjoyed. Many of them adopted Leicester's views, which held in prospect nothing less than the throne itself. The civil war was renewed in all its horrors: and after several fruitless negociations, the collected force of the two parties met near Lewes, in Sussex, where the royal army was totally defeated, and the king and prince Edward made prisoners. A. D. 1264. No sooner had Leicester obtained this victory, and got the royal family in his power, than he acted as sole master, and even tyrant of the kingdom. He seized the estates of no less than eighteen barons, as his share of the spoil gained in the battle of Lewes: he engrossed to himself the ransom of all the prisoners, and told his barons, with wanton insolence, that it was sufficient for 14. Ibid. them them that he had saved them, by that victory, from the forfeitures and attainders which hung over them. All the officers of the crown were named by him; the whole authority, as well as arms of the state, was lodg ed in his hands'. But it was impossible that things could remain long in this equivocal situation. It became necessary for Leicester either to descend to the rank of a subject, or mount up to that of a sovereign; and he could do neither without peril. He summoned a new parliaA. D. 1265. ment; which, for his own purposes, he fixed on a more democratical basis than any called since the Nor, man conquest, if not from the foundation of the monarchy. He ordered returns to be made not only of two knights from every shire, but also of deputies from the boroughs"; and thus introduced into the national council a second order of men, hitherto regarded as too mean to enjoy a place in those august assemblies, or have any share in the government of the state. But although we are indebted to Leicester's usurpation for the first rude outline of the House of Commons, his policy only forwarded by some years an institution, for which the general state of society had already prepared the nation; and that house, though derived from so invidious an origin, when summoned by legal princes, soon proved one of the most useful members of the constitution, and gradually rescued the kingdom, as we shall have occasion to see, both from aristocratical and regal tyranny. It is but just, however, to observe, that as this necessary, and now powerful branch of our constitution, owed its rise to usurpation, it is the only one of the three that has latterly given an usurper to the state, The person to whom I allude, is Oliver Cromwell; and I will be so bold as to affirm, that if ever England is again subjected to the absolute will of any ONE man, unless from abroad, that man must be a member of the House of 15. Rymer, vol. i. M. Paris. W. Hemming. H. Knyghton. 16. Ibid, Commons. Commons. The people are alike jealous of the power of the king and of the nobles; but they are themselves greedy of dominion, and can only possess it through their representatives. A popular member of the lower house, therefore, needs only ambition, enterprize, and a favourable conjuncture to overturn the throne; to strip the nobles of their dignities; and, while he blows the trumpet of liberty, to tell his equals they are slaves. Leicester's motive for giving this form to the parliament, was a désire of crushing his rivals among the powerful barons; and trusting to the popularity acquired by such a measure, he made the earl of Derby be accused in the king's name, and ordered him to be seized and committed to prison without being brought to any legal trial. Several other barons were threatened with the same fate, and deserted the confederacy. The royalists flew to arms; prince Edward made his escape; and the joy of this young hero's appearance, together with the oppressions under which the nation laboured, soon produced him a force which Leicester was unable to resist. A battle was fought near Evesham; where Leicester was slain, and his army totally routed. When that nobleman, who possessed great military talents, observed the vast superiority in numbers, and excellent disposition of the royalists, he exclaimed, "The Lord "have mercy on our souls! for I see our bodies are "prince Edward's: he has learned from me the art of "war"." Another particular deserves to be noticed. The old king, disguised in armour, having been purposely placed by the rebels in the front of the battle, had received a wound, and was ready to be put to death, when he weakly, but opportunely cried out, "Spare my life! I "am Henry of Winchester, your king." His brave son flew to his rescue, and put him in a place of safety. The victory of Evesham proved decisive in favour of the royal party, but was used with moderation. Although 17. W, Hemming. M. Paris. 18. W Hemming, lib. iii. the the suppression of so extensive a rebellion commonly produces a revolution in government, and strengthens as well as enlarges the prerogatives of the crown, no sacrifices of national liberty were exacted upon this occasion. The clemency of this victory is also remarkable; no blood was shed on the scaffold. The mild disposition of the king, and the prudence of the prince, tempered the insolence of power, and gradually restored order to the several members of the state. The affairs of England were no sooner settled than prince Edward, seduced by a thirst of glory, undertook an expedition into the Holy Land; where he A. D. 1270. signalized himself by many acts of valour, and struck such terror into the Saracens, that they employ. ed an assassin to murder him. The ruffian wounded Edward in the arm, but paid for his temerity with his life 19. Meanwhile the prince's absence from England was productive of many pernicious consequences, which the old king, unequal to the burden of government, was little able to prevent". He therefore implored his gallant son to return, and assist him in swaying that sceptre which was ready to drop from his feeble hands. Edward obeyed; but before his arrival the king expired in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the fifty-sixth of his reign, the longest in the English annals. A. D. 1271. The most obvious feature in the character of Henry III. is his weakness. From this source, rather than from insincerity or treachery, arose his negligence in observing his promises; and hence, for the sake of present conveniency, he was easily induced to sacrifice the lasting advantages arising from the trust and confidence of his people. A better head, with the same dispositions, would have prevented him from falling into so many errors! 19. M. Paris. T. Wykes. 20. The police was so loose during the latter part of Henry's reign, that not only single houses, but whole villages were often pillaged by Bands of robbers. Chron. Dunst. but but (every good has its alloy!) with a worse heart, it would have enabled him to maintain them. Prince Edward had reached Sicily in his return from the Holy Land, when he received intelligence of the death of his father, and immediately proceeded homeward. But a variety of objects, my dear Philip, claim your attention before I carry farther the transactions of our own island, which now become truly important. The reign of Edward I. forms a new era in the history of Britain. LETTER XXXIII. FRANCE, FROM THE REIGN OF PHILIP AUGUSTUS, TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF LEWIS IX. COMMONLY CALLED ST. LEWIS, THE reign of Philip Augustus has already engaged our attention. We have had occasion to observe the great abilities of that prince, both as a warrior and a politician: we have seen him reunite many fine provinces to the kingdom of France at the expense of the English monarchy: we have seen him attempt the conquest of England itself; and we have also seen in what manner prince Lewis was obliged to abandon that project, notwithstanding the power and the intrigues of Philip. Soon after the return of Lewis, his father died, and left the kingdom of France twice as large as he had received it; so that future acquisitions became easy to his successors. A. D. 1223. Lewis VIII. however, did not enlarge the monarchy. His short reign was chiefly spent in a crusade against the |