tion, headed by Wat Tyler, put the government, for a time, in great jeopardy. While the kingdom was convulsed with domestic contests, it was also engaged in hostilities with France and Scotland. At length, during the king's absence in quelling an insurrection in Ireland, Henry of Lancaster rose in open rebellion, and compelled Richard, at his return, to resign the sceptre into his hands. The parliament confirmed the act, and the king was soon after privately assassinated or starved to death. Thus began the contention between the houses of York and Lancaster.

§ The finances of the kingdom were exhausted by the wars which were carried on with its foreign enemy. As nothing was obtained by conquest to repair the waste, parliament found it necessary to impose a poll tax of three groats on every person, male and female, above fifteen years of age. But the minds of the people were unfavourably disposed for this measure, and the principles of democracy gaining ground, this distich was frequently in the mouths of the multitude:

"When Adam delv'd and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman."

Besides, the injustice of the tax, to which the poor were obliged to contribute as much as the rich, was apparent to every body. While the character of the measure was viewed in this light, the rigorous manner in which it was enforced, seemed insupportable.

An incident which occurred, respecting the wanton conduct of a tax-gatherer, in the family of a blacksmith, aroused the public mind, and became the occasion of a wide spread insurrection. The populace flew to arms. The spirit immediately pervaded Essex and the neighbouring counties. The leaders assuming the feigned names of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and Hob Carter, committed the most outrageous violence on such of the nobility and gentry as came in their way. At length, assembling their followers on Blackheath, to the amount of one hundred thousand, they broke into London, demanding certain immunities, which were granted, but in parties still continuing to insult and plunder the capital.

At this juncture, the king, slenderly guarded, met Tyler at the head of a large body of rioters, and entered into conference with him. Tyler ordered his companions to retire, till he should give the signal for attack, and then ventured alone into the midst of the royal retinue. Here he demeaned himself in so insolent a manner. that Walworth, the mayor of London, in a fit of indignation, drev his sword and brought him to the ground. He was instantly dis patched by the rest of the king's attendants. Richard's presence of mind saved himself and them from the meditated revenge of the mutineers. Accosting the enraged multitude with an affable and intrepid countenance, he asked them, "What is the meaning of

your disorder? Are you angry, my good people, that you have lost your leader. I, your king, will be your leader."

The presence of majesty overawed the multitude, and they implicitly followed the king. Leading them into the fields, he peaceably dismissed them, with the same charters which had been granted to their fellows. These charters, however, were soon after annulled in parliament.

In regard to the death of Richard, after he was deposed and imprisoned, it was long the prevailing opinion, that his guards fell upon him in the castle of Pontefract, and dispatched him with their halberts. But it is more probable, that he was starved to death in prison, for after his body was exposed in public, no marks of violence were found upon it.

The particular ground of the controversy between the houses of York and Lancaster, was, that Edmund Mortimer was the true heir to the crown, being descended from Lionel, the second son of Edward III., whereas Henry, duke of Lancaster, who was placed on the throne, was the son of John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III.

17 Henry IV., was the title which the duke of Lancaster assumed, when he came into power. He was surnamed Bolingbroke, and the date of his reign is 1400. He was immediately oppressed by faction and discontent; and as a righteous retribution, he felt the uneasiness of "the head that wears a crown." A rebellion, raised by the earl of Northumberland, for placing Mortimer, of the house of York, the true heir, on the throne, first required his attention. The Scotch and the Welch took part with the malcontents, but their united forces were defeated at Shrewsbury, and their leader, young Percy, (Hotspur, so named on account of his fiery temper,) was killed on the field.

§ The armies on this occasion were nearly equal in numbers, consisting of about twelve thousand men, each; and rarely was there a battle in those times, where the shock was more terrible or more constant. Henry exposed his person to all the dangers of the field. His gallant son, the prince of Wales, who afterwards so signalized himself by his military exploits, urged on the fight with the utmost intrepidity, and even a wound which he received in the face with an arrow, could not oblige him to retire. On the other side, Percy and Douglas, terrible name, supported their ancient renown. But while the armies were contending in the most furious manner, the death of Percy, by an unknown hand, decided the victory, and the adherents of the king won the day.

18. A second rebellion, headed by the archbishop of York, was quelled by the capital punishment of its author. In the reign of this prince, the secular arm was unrighteously ex

tended against the followers of Wickliffe; and history records the shameful fact, that Henry IV, was the first English monarch, that made the religion of his subjects, an offence to be expiated by the faggot and the scaffold.

The latter part of his life was embittered by the extreme profligacy of his son Henry, prince of Wales, who afterwards nobly discarded the vices and follies of his youth.

§ The following particular merits a recital. One of his abandoned companions having been indicted before Sir Wm. Gascoigne, the chief justice, the young prince was not ashamed to appear at the bar with the criminal, in order to give him countenance and protection. Finding that his presence did not over-awe the chief justice, he proceeded to insult him on his tribunal. But Gascoigne, mindful of his own dignity, and of the majesty of the laws, ordered the prince to be committed to prison. Henry, sensible of his error, quietly submitted to the order. When the affair was mentioned to his father, he is said to have exclaimed, "Happy is the king who has a magistrate sufficiently courageous to execute the laws upon such an offender; but still more happy, in having a son willing to submit to such chastisement."

Henry died, 1413, at the age of forty-six, in the fourteenth year of his reign. Notwithstanding distinguished military talents and political sagacity, he became a most unpopular sovereign. The illegality of his title, may have disaffected his subjects towards his person and his reign. He felt the miseries of guilt, and became suspicious and jealous. In religion, he was bigotted and intolerant.

19. His son, Henry V., ascended the throne in 1413. He laid aside his diss..lute habits, as already intimated, and informed the companions of his pleasures, that they must enter on a similar reformation, if they would secure his favour. He also received the wise ministers of his father, who had checked his riots, with all the marks of esteem and confidence.

Henry early asserted by arms, the English claim to France. Taking advantage of disorders in that kingdom, he invaded it with an army of about thirty thousand men, and with half that number, defeated the French army, amounting to sixty thousand men, on the plains of Agincourt. His own loss did not exceed five hundred men, while that of the French an.ounted to twenty-two thousand in killed and prisoners.

§ Henry drew up his army on a narrow ground, between two woods, to cover each flank, and patiently expected an attack, having been surprised by the sudden appearance of the French, in great

force, when his own army had been greatly reduced by sickness and fatigue. Had the French general declined a combat, the English must have relinquished the advantages of their situation; but the impetuous valour of the nobility, and a vain confidence in superior numbers, brought on an action, which proved to the English so glorious and successful.

After this battle, returning to England to recruit his forces, he landed again with an army of twenty-five thousand men, and fought his way to Paris. The war between Henry and the French king, was terminated by the treaty of Troyes, 1420. Henry then turned his arms with success against the dauphin, who assumed the style and authority of regent. Triumphing signally over his enemy, and realizing most of his wishes, he had nearly reached the summit of human glory. But his end was approaching, and one of the most heroic of the English monarchs, died at the early age of thirtyfour years, and after a reign of nine years.

§ The treaty of Troyes was made with the Queen mother, and the duke of Burgundy-Charles, the French king, being insane. By this treaty it was agreed that he should marry the daughter of Charles, and receive the kingdom of France as her dowry, which, till the death of her father, he should govern as regent.

Henry was a true hero, and like all heroes, his views of conquest were pernicious in their tendency. Accordingly, England derived from his achievements, rather fame than solid advantage. He was able in the cabinet as well as in the field-was magnanimous, generous, and affable, but had more than the bigotry of his father in religion.

20. Henry VI., at the age of ten months, succeeded his father, in 1422, under the regency of the dukes of Gloucester and Bedford, the former for England, the latter for France. Henry was crowned king of France, at the age of eight years. At this era, in order to complete the conquest of that kingdom, it remained only to capture Orleans. The duke of Bedford, acting as regent of France, had laid siege to the place, but he was obliged to raise it by the valour and good conduct of Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans. Thus was France saved, and England was afterwards stripped of almost every conquest it had made in that country.

When arrived at adult years, Henry proved himself to be mild and inoffensive, but deficient in the energy which becomes a sovereign. He had but a slender capacity. These defects in the king were supplied by his queen, the famous Margaret of Anjou, a woman of great talents, ambition, and

heroism. She made a conspicuous figure in the wars which distracted his reign.

The insurrection of Jack Cade, was an event of some um portance, and was quelled only after considerable bloodshed.

§ Jack Cade, a native of Ireland, whose crimes obliged him to retire into France, had assumed the name of Mortimer, and at the head of 20,000 Kentish men, encamped on Blackheath, in this way to Lor.don, in order to obtain a redress of grievances. The city opened its gates to Cade, who for some time maintained great order among his followers; but at length when he could not prevent them from committing depredations and outrages, the citizens, with the assistance of some soldiers, repulsed the rebels with great slaughter. Upon their submission, they received a general pardon, which was afterwards annulled, and both Cade, and many of his followers, were capitally punished for their rebellion.

The duke of Gloucester, who was heir to the crown in case the king should die without issue, was the favourite of the nation; but he had opposed the marriage of Henry with Margaret, and was therefore marked out by the latter for destruction. He was arrested and sent to prison, where he was found dead a few days afterwards. This event, in connection with the imbecility of the king, encouraged the Duke of York to assert his claim to the throne.

§ The duke of York, who was Richard, son of Lionel, second son of Edward III., was, however, averse to violent measures, and his forbearance, when appointed lieutenant of the kingdom, though amiable and unusual, proved the source of all those furious wars and commotions which ensued; for the queen at length persuaded Henry to annul the protectorship of Richard, and place the administration in the hands of the duke of Somerset. Richard then levied an army; but an account of the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, properly belongs to the next period.

GERMANY.

21. In the history of the GERMAN EMPIRE, is to be noticed, the rise of the House of Austria, which constitutes an important portion of that empire. This event took place in the latter part of the former period, viz. 1274, when Rodolphus of Hapsbourg, a Swiss baron, was elected emperor of Germany. He owed his elevation to the jealousies of the electoral princes, who could not agree in the choice of any one of themselves. The king of Bohemia, to whom Rodol phus had been steward of de household, could not endure the supremacy of his former dependent; and refusing him