<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-012.png" width-obs="400" height-obs="310" alt="PRINCE ARTHUR" title="" /></div>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1066.</span></div>
<div class='cap'>THE Danes never succeeded in conquering England and in making it
their own, though many of them settled in England and married
English wives. But some relations of the Danes, called the Normans,
were bolder and stronger and more fortunate. And William, who was
called the Conqueror, became King of England, and left his son to rule
after him. And when four Norman Kings had reigned in England, the
Count of Anjou was made the English King, because his mother was the
heiress of the English crown.</div>
<p>His great-grandfather, Ingeger, the first Count of Anjou, must have
been a very brave man. When he was quite a boy he was page to his
godmother, who was a great lady. It was the custom then for boys of
noble family to serve noble ladies as pages.</p>
<p>One morning this lady's husband was found dead in his bed, and the
poor lady was accused by a nobleman, named Gontran, of murdering him.
Gontran said he was quite sure of her guilt, and that he was ready to
stake his life on it, that is to say, he offered to fight anyone who should
say that the lady was innocent. This seems a curious way of finding out
a person's innocence or guilt, but it was the custom of the times.</p>
<p>The poor lady could find no one who believed in her enough to risk
his life, and she began to despair, when suddenly her boy-page rushed
forward and begged that, though he was not yet a knight, and so had<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></SPAN></span>
really no right to fight, yet that he might be allowed
to do combat in her defence. "The whole Court
were spectators. The Duke Charles was on his
throne, and the accused widow in a litter curtained
with black. Prayers were offered that God would
aid the right. The trumpets sounded, and the
champions rode in full career against each other. At
the first onset Gontran's lance pierced his adversary's
shield so that he could not disengage it, and Ingeger
was thus enabled to close with him, hurl him to the
ground, and despatch him with a dagger. Then, while
the lists rang with applause, the brave boy rushed up
to his godmother and threw himself into her arms in a transport of joy."</p>
<div class='center'> <table class="page" summary="page">
<tr><td align='left'><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>
<div class='blockquot2'>When William conquered England he became King of England and
still owned his own possessions in Normandy, and the Count of Anjou,
when he became King, still held the lands he had held as Count, so that
the Kings of England held a great part of France as well as England.
The Counts of Anjou used to wear a sprig of broom, or <i>planta genista</i>, in
their helmets, and from this they were called the Plantagenet Kings.</div>
<div class='blockquot2'>The first of them was brave and clever, and the second was brave,
but the third, John, was mean and cruel and cowardly, and had really no
right to the throne at all. His nephew, Prince Arthur of Brittany, ought
to have been King, because he was the son of John's elder brother. But<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></SPAN></span>
John wanted the kingdom for himself, and though the King of France
tried to help Arthur to get his rights, John would not give up the crown
he had stolen. He managed to take Prince Arthur prisoner, and then
pretended to be very fond of him. "All this quarrel has been a mistake,"
he said; "come with me and I will give you a kingdom."</div>
</td>
</tr></table></div>
<p>So Prince Arthur went with him, and in the dark night, as they
passed along by the river, the wicked King stabbed the young Prince
with his own hand, and pushed him into the swift-flowing water.
"There," he cried, "that is the kingdom I promised you."</p>
<p>And the poor young Prince sank into the dark flood, never to rise again.</p>
<p>Shakespeare tells another story of Prince Arthur's death, which you
will read for yourselves one day; and this is the story:—</p>
<p>After King John had taken the young Prince prisoner, he shut him
up in the Castle of Northampton, and ordered Hubert de Burgh, the
Governor of the Castle, to put poor Arthur's eyes out, because he thought
that no one would want a blind boy to be King of England. So Hubert
went into the room where the little Prince was shut up.</p>
<p>"Good morning," said the Prince. "You are sad, Hubert."</p>
<p>"Indeed, I have been merrier," said Hubert, who, though he did
not like to disobey the King, was yet miserable at the wicked deed he
had been asked to do.</p>
<p>"Nobody," said Arthur, "should be sad but I. If I were out of
prison and kept sheep I should be as merry as the day is long. And so
I would be here but for my uncle. He is afraid of me and I of him. Is
it my fault that I was Geoffrey's son? Indeed it is not, and I would to
heaven I were your son, so you would love me, Hubert."</p>
<p>"If I talk to him," said Hubert to himself, "I shall never have
the courage to do this wicked deed."</p>
<p>"Are you ill, Hubert?" Arthur went on. "You look pale to-day.
If you were ill I would sit all night and watch you, for I believe I love
you more than you do me."</p>
<p>Hubert dared not listen. He felt he must do the King's wicked
will, so he pulled out the paper on which the King had written his cruel
order, and showed it to the young Prince. Arthur read it calmly and
then turned to Hubert.</p>
<p>"So you are to put out my eyes with hot irons?"<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-015.png" width-obs="500" height-obs="381" alt=""YOU ARE SAD, HUBERT," SAID THE PRINCE." title="" /></div>
<p>"Young boy, I must," said Hubert.</p>
<p>"And you will?" asked Arthur.</p>
<p>And Hubert answered, "And I will."</p>
<p>"Have you the heart?" cried Arthur. "Do you remember when
your head ached how I tied it up with my own handkerchief, and sat up
with you the whole night holding your hand and doing everything I could
for you! Many a poor man's son would have lain still and never have
spoke a loving word to you; but you, at your sick service, had a prince.
Will you put out my eyes—those eyes that never did, nor never shall, so
much as frown on you?"</p>
<p>"I have sworn to do it," said Hubert. He called two men, who
brought in the fire and the hot irons, and the cord to bind the little Prince.</p>
<p>"Give me the irons," said Hubert, "and bind him here."<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></SPAN></span></p>
<p>"For heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound," cried Arthur.
"I will not struggle—I will stand stone still. Nay, hear me, Hubert,
drive these men away and I will sit as quiet as a lamb, and I will forgive
you whatever torment you may put me to."</p>
<p>And Hubert was moved by his pleading, and told the men to go;
and as they went they said—"We are glad to have no part in such a
wicked deed as this."</p>
<p>Then Arthur flung his arms round Hubert and implored him to
spare his eyes, and at last Hubert consented, for all the time his
heart had been sick at the cruel deed he had promised to do. Then
he took Prince Arthur away and hid him, and told the King he
was dead.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-016.png" width-obs="250" height-obs="250" alt="coin" title="" /></div>
<p>But King John's lords were so angry when they heard that
Arthur was dead, and John seemed so sorry for having given the
order to Hubert, that Hubert thought it best to tell him that Arthur
had not been killed at all, but was still alive and safe. John was
now so terrified at the anger of his lords on Arthur's account that
Arthur might from that time have been safe from him. But the
poor boy was so frightened by what he had gone through that he
made up his mind to risk his life in trying to escape. So he decided
to leap down from the top of the tower as his only means of escape.</p>
<p>Then he thought he could get
away in disguise without being
recognised.</p>
<p>"The wall is high, and yet
will I leap down," he said.
"Good ground, be pitiful and
hurt me not."</p>
<p>So he leaped, but the tower
was high, and the fall killed
him. And before he died, he
murmured—"Heaven take my
soul and England keep my
bones."</p>
<p>That is the story as Shakespeare
gives it.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-017.png" width-obs="600" height-obs="440" alt="Asleep" title="" /></div>
<p>Almost everyone in
England hated King John,
even before this dreadful
affair of Prince Arthur's
death. The King of France
took Normandy away from him, and his own people would not help him
to fight for it.</p>
<p>He was very cruel and revengeful, and often put people in prison
or killed them without giving any reason for it, or having them
properly tried. So the great nobles of England joined together and said
that they would not let John be King any longer in England unless
he would give them a written promise to behave better in future.
At first he laughed at the idea, and said he should do as he chose,
and that he would fight the lords and keep them in their proper
place. But he had to give in when he found that only seven of
the lords of England were on his side and all the rest against him.
So then he asked the barons and the bishops to meet him at Runnymede
and there he put his big seal to a writing, promising what they wished.
He did not sign his name to it, but you can see that very parchment
sealed in the British Museum with the King's big seal to it.</p>
<div class="sidenote">Magna Charta<br/>
<span class="smcap">a.d. 1215.</span></div>
<p>But though he fixed his seal to the paper he did not keep the<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></SPAN></span>
promises that were in it, and the
barons grew so angry that they
asked the King of France to help
them to fight John, and to turn
him out.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-018.png" width-obs="215" height-obs="375" alt="ROBIN HOOD" title="" /></div>
<p>John ran away when he heard
that the French were coming. He left his
friends to fight his battles, and went off,
wrecking the castles of the barons who had
asked the French Prince to come over, and
who were now with him. Then someone
told the barons that the French Prince was
determined to cut off all their heads as soon
as he had got England for his own. So
they saw how foolish they had been to ask
him to come and help them. John was in
Lincolnshire, and was coming across the
sands at the Wash, but the tide suddenly
came in and swept away his crown, his
treasure, his food, and everything was lost
in the sea. King John was very miserable
at losing all his treasures, and he tried to
drown his sorrows by drinking a lot of beer
and eating much more than was good for
him. This brought on a fever, and he
died miserably, with no one at all to be sorry for him.</p>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1216.</span></div>
<p>He was and is the best-hated of all our English kings.</p>
<p>There was much danger in travelling in those days, for robbers
used to hide in the woods and lonely places, and to attack and
rob travellers. Many of the nobles themselves who were in attendance
on the King, being often unable to get their proper pay, either belonged
to these robber bands or secretly helped them, and shared with them
the plunder they took from those they robbed. The best known of these
robbers was the famous Robin Hood, who lived in the time of King
Richard and King John. He is supposed to have been a nobleman,
and to have had his hiding place in Sherwood Forest, and he is<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></SPAN></span>
said to have been kind and merciful to the poor, and to have helped them
out of the money and good things he stole from the rich. Many
songs about him have come down to us. The poor suffered in those old
days many and great hardships at the hands of the nobles of England,
who indeed robbed and oppressed them very cruelly. So they were
ready enough to sing the praises of one who stole only from the rich and
who gave to the poor.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-019.png" width-obs="350" height-obs="283" alt="Stag" title="" /></div>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/chapterbreaks.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="92" alt="Border" title="" /> </div>
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