<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-027.png" width-obs="500" height-obs="253" alt="The First Prince of Wales. ICH DIEN" title="" /></div>
<div class='cap'>THERE were Welsh princes long before there were English kings, and
the Welsh princes could not bear to be subject to the kings of
England. So they were always fighting to get back their independence.
But the English kings could not let them be free as they wished,
because England could never have been safe with an independent kingdom
so close to her. So there were constant wars between the two countries,
and sometimes the fortune of battle went one way and sometimes
the other.</div>
<p>But at last the Welsh Prince Llewellyn was killed. He had gone
to the south of Wales to cheer up his subjects there, and he had crossed
the river Wye into England, when a small band of English knights came
up. A young knight named Adam Frankton met with a Welsh chief
as he came out of a barn to join the Welsh army. Frankton at once
attacked him, and after a struggle, wounded the Welsh chief to
death. Then he rode on to battle, and when he came back he tried
to find out what had become of the Welshman. He heard that
he was already dead, and then they found that the dead man was
the great Welsh Prince Llewellyn. His head was taken off and sent
to London, where it was placed on the battlements of the Tower and
crowned, in scorn, with ivy. This was because an old Welsh magician,
years before, had said that when English money became round, the
Welsh princes should be crowned in London. And money had become
round in this way:<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></SPAN></span>—</p>
<p>Before this there were silver pennies, and when anyone wanted
a half-penny, he chopped the silver penny in two, and if he wanted
a farthing he chopped the silver penny in four, so that money was
all sorts of queer shapes. But Edward the First had caused round
copper half-pennies and farthings to be made, and when the Welsh
prince had heard of this he had believed that the old magician's
words were coming true, and that he should defeat Edward and become
king of England himself. Instead of this, the poor man's head was
cut off, and, in mockery of his hopes and dreams, they crowned the
poor dead head with the wreath of ivy.</p>
<p>Now the Welsh wanted another prince, and King Edward said:
"If you will submit to me and not fight any more, you shall have
a prince who was born in Wales, can speak never a word of English,
and never did wrong to man, woman, or child." The Welsh people
agreed that if they could have such a prince as that, they would be
contented and quiet, and give up fighting. And so one day the leaders
of the Welsh met King Edward at his castle in Caernarvon and asked for
the Prince he had promised them, and he came out of his castle with his
little son, who had only been born a week before, in his arms.</p>
<p>"Here is your Prince," he said, holding up the little baby. "He
was born in Wales, he cannot speak a word of English, and he has never
done harm to man, woman or child."</p>
<p>Instead of being angry at the trick the king had played them,
the Welsh people were very pleased. Welsh nurses took care of the baby,
so that he really did learn to speak in Welsh before he could speak in
English. And the Welsh were so pleased with their baby king that from
that time Edward the First had no more trouble with them.</p>
<p>There are many stories told of this prince's boldness as a child. He
promised them to grow up as brave as his father, and it would have been
better for him if he had done so. He was always very fond of hunting,
and once when he was quite young, he and his servants were hunting the
deer. His servants lost the trace of the deer, and presently, when they
reined up their horses, they found that the young prince was no longer
with them. They looked everywhere for him, very frightened lest he
should have fallen into the hands of robbers; and at last they heard
a horn blown in the forest. They followed the sound of it and presently<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></SPAN></span>
found that the young prince had
seen which way the deer went, and
had followed it and killed it all by
himself.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-029.png" width-obs="600" height-obs="452" alt="The Baby" title="" /></div>
<p>Now King Edward the First
had great trouble with his Scotch nobles, and many were the battles he
fought with them, until at last he forced the Scottish king Balliol to
declare himself his vassal, and he became the over-lord of Scotland.
But there arose a brave Scot named William Wallace, who longed to see
his country free from England, and he drove the English back, and
again and again he beat them.</p>
<p>But in a few years Edward got together another army, and leading
them into Scotland he beat the Scots and took Wallace prisoner.
Wallace was tried and found guilty of treason, and when he had been
beheaded, they crowned his head with laurel and placed it on London
Bridge, for all the passers-by, by road or river, to see.</p>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1305.</span></div>
<p>Then two men claimed the Scottish crown, Robert Bruce and John,
who was called the Red Comyn. They were jealous of each other, and
Bruce thought that Comyn had betrayed him. They met in a church
to have an explanation.</p>
<p>"You are a traitor," said Bruce.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-030.png" width-obs="382" height-obs="500" alt="Stag" title="" /></div>
<p>"You lie,"
said Comyn.</p>
<p>And Bruce
in a fury struck
at him with his
dagger, and
then, filled with horror, rushed from the church.
"To horse, to horse," he cried. One of his
attendants, named Kirkpatrick, asked him what
was the matter.</p>
<p>"I doubt," said Bruce, "that I have
slain the Red Comyn."</p>
<p>"You doubt!"
said Kirkpatrick. "I
will make sure."</p>
<p>So saying, he
hurried back into the
church and killed the
wounded man.</p>
<p>And now the task
of defending Scotland
against Edward was
left to Robert Bruce.
King Edward was so
angry when he heard
of this murder, that
at the feast, when
his son was made a
knight, he swore over the swan, which was the chief dish and which
was the emblem of truth and constancy, that he would never rest two
nights in the same place till he had chastised the Scots. And for some
time the Scots and English were at bitter war, and when King Edward
died, he made his son promise to go on fighting.</p>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1307.</span></div>
<p>But Edward the Second was not a man like his father. He was
more like his grandfather Henry the Third, caring for pretty colours and
pretty things, rich clothes, rich feasts, rich jewels, and surrounding himself<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></SPAN></span>
with worthless favourites. Robert Bruce said he was more afraid of the
dead bones of Edward the First than of the living body of Edward of
Caernarvon, and that it was easier to win a kingdom from his son than
a foot of land from the father. Gradually the castles the English had
taken in Scotland were won back from them. For twenty years the
English had held the Castle of Edinburgh, and at the end of that time,
Randolph, a Scottish noble, came to besiege it.</p>
<p>The siege was long, and the brave English showed no signs of giving
in. Randolph was told that it was possible to climb up the south face of
the rock on which the castle stood, and steep as the rock was, Randolph
and some others began to climb it one dark night. When they were
part of the way up, and close to the wall of the castle, they heard a
soldier above them cry out—"Away, I see you," and down came stone
after stone. Had many more been thrown Randolph and his companions
must have been dashed to the ground and killed, for it was only on a
very narrow ledge that they had found a footing. But the soldier was
only in joke, trying to frighten his fellows. He had not really seen them
at all, and he passed on. When all was quiet again, the daring Scots
climbed up till they reached the top of the wall, and when they had
fixed a rope ladder the rest of their men came up. Then they fell upon
the men of the garrison and killed them, and the castle was taken by the
Scots.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-032.png" width-obs="335" height-obs="450" alt="Fallen" title="" /></div>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1314.</span></div>
<p>But a greater loss awaited the English. Edward led an English
army to battle in Scotland; and at Bannockburn they met the force of
the Scots king. They fought till the field was slippery with blood, and
covered with broken armour and lances and arrows. Then at the last, as
the English began to waver, Bruce charged down on them with more
soldiers and utterly routed them. Edward with difficulty saved his life,
and throughout England there were bitter lamentings at the loss and
shame the country had suffered. Scotland was free from the English
yoke, and of all the great conquests the first Edward had won, only
Berwick-on-Tweed remained to the English.</p>
<p>Edward II. was never loved by his subjects. He made favourites
of silly and wicked persons, and so gave much offence to good folk. He
was wasteful and extravagant, and did not even try to govern the
country wisely and well, while his favourites made themselves hated<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></SPAN></span>
more and more
by their dishonesty
and wickedness.
The last
of his favourites
was named
Despenser, and
he was as much
hated by the
Queen Isabella
as by the lords
and people of
England. Despenser
not only
made himself
hated by the
queen, but he
managed also to
make her dislike
her husband, the
king, with whom
she had long
been on unfriendly
terms.
At last Isabella,
disgusted with
her husband and
his favourite,
ran away to France, and there, with the help of the Count of Hainault
and other friends in England, she raised an army and attacked and
defeated her husband and his favourite. The young Despenser was
hanged on a gibbet fifty feet high, and a Parliament was called to decide
what should be done with the king.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-033.png" width-obs="174" height-obs="500" alt="Help" title="" /></div>
<p>The Parliament declared its right to make or unmake kings, and
ordered that Edward should not be king any more. Some members went
to Edward at Kenilworth to tell him what they had decided, and Edward<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></SPAN></span>
clad in a plain black gown, received them and quietly promised to be
king no more. Then he was taken to Berkeley Castle, and a few months
after the people learned that he was dead.</p>
<p>There has always been much doubt whether he died a natural death
or was murdered. The Bishop of Hereford, who had always been on the
queen's side, is said to have sent to two
wicked men the following message written
in Latin—"Edwardum occidere nolite timere
bonum est." Now this message had two
meanings according to the way the stops were
put in. The first was—"Be unwilling to
fear to kill Edward—it is good." The other
was—"Be unwilling to kill Edward—it is
good to fear."</p>
<p>So you see that, if this message fell into
anyone's hands for whom it was not intended,
the bishop would have been able to say he
meant to warn people not to kill the king,
while Gurney and Maltravers, who received
the message, could say that the paper was an
order to kill him. The story goes, that they
came to the castle and there found the poor
king in a dungeon. He was standing in mire
and puddle, and, although he was a king, they
gave him only bread and water. Then he
thought of his former greatness and how
brave and gallant a show he had made as a
knight, and he cried out—</p>
<div class='poem2'>
"Tell Isabel, the queen, I looked not thus<br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">When for her sake I ran at tilt in France</span><br/>
<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And there unhorsed the Duke of Cleremont."</span><br/></div>
<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">a.d. 1327.</span></div>
<p>He was too weak to resist these wicked
men, and they had no mercy in their hearts,
but murdered him.<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/i-034.jpg" width-obs="440" height-obs="600" alt="HENRY VI., THE BABY KING. (See page 47.)" title="" /> <span class="caption">HENRY VI., THE BABY KING. (<SPAN href="#Page_47">See page 47</SPAN>.)</span></div>
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