attack, who bore down upon them with incredible fury. During this terrible day, Leicester behaved with astonishing intrepidity, and kept up the spirit of the action from two o'clock in the afternoon till nine at night. At last, his horse being killed under him, he was compelled to fight on foot; and though he demanded quarter, the adverse party refused it, with a barbarity common enough in the times we are describing. The old king, who was placed in the front of the battle, was soon wounded in the shoulder; and not being known by his friends, he was on the point of being killed by a soldier; but crying out, "I am Henry of Winchester, the king," he was saved by a knight of the royal army. Prince Edward hearing the voice of his father, instantly ran to the spot where he lay, and had him conducted to a place of safety. The body of Leicester being found among the dead, was barbarously mangled by one Roger Mortimer; and then, with an accumulation of inhumanity, sent to the wretched widow, as a testimony of the royal party's success.

This victory proved decisive; and the prince, having thus restored peace to the kingdom, found his affairs so firmly established, that he resolved upon taking the cross, which was at that time the highest object of human ambition.

In pursuance of this resolution, Edward sailed from England. with a large army, and arrived at the camp of Lewis, the King of France, which lay before Tunis; and where he had the misfortune to hear of that good monarch's death before his arrival. The prince, however, no way discouraged by this event, continued his voyage, and arrived at the Holy Land in safety.

He was scarce departed upon this pious expedition, when the health of the old king began to decline; and he found not only his own constitution, but also that of the state, in such a dangerous situation, that he wrote letters to his son, pressing him to return with all dispatch. At last, being overcome by the cares of government, and the infirmities of age, he ordered himself to be removed, by easy journies, from St. Edmund's to Westminster, and that same night expired, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and fifty-sixth of his reign, the longest to be met with in the annals of England.

YHILE the unfortunate Henry was thus vainly struggling

W with the ungovernable spirit of his subjects, his son and

successor, Edward, was employed in the Holy Wars, where he revived the glory of the English name, and made the enemies of Christianity tremble. He was stabbed, however, by one of those Mahometan enthusiasts, called Assassins, as he was one day sitting in his tent, and was cured not without great difficulty. Some say that he owed his safety to the piety and affection of Eleanora, his wife, who sucked the poison from the wound to save his life, at the hazard of her own.

Though the death of the late king happened while the successor was so far from home, yet measures had been so well taken, that the crown was transferred with the greatest tranquillity.

As Edward was now come to an undisputed throne, the opposite interests were proportionably feeble. The barons were exhausted by long and mutual dissentions; the clergy were divided in their interests, and agreed only in one point, to hate the pope, who had for some time drained them with impunity: the people, by some insurrections against the convents, appeared to hate the clergy with equal animosity. These disagreeing orders only concurred in one point, that of esteeming and reverencing the king. He therefore thought this the most favourable conjuncture of uniting England with Wales. The Welsh had for many ages enjoyed their own laws,

language, customs, and opinions. They were the remains of the Ancient Britons, who had escaped the Roman and Saxon invasions, and still preserved their freedom and their country uncontaminated by the admission of foreign conquerors. But as they were, from their number, incapable of withstanding their more powerful neighbours on the plain, their chief defence lay in their inaccessible mountains, those natural bulwarks of the country. Whenever England was distressed by factions at home, or its forces called off to wars abroad, the Welsh made it a constant practice to pour in their irregular troops, and lay the open country waste wherever they came. Nothing could be more pernicious to a country than several neighbouring independent principalities, under different commanders, and pursuing different interests; the mutual jealousies of such were sure to harass the people; and wherever victory was purchased, it was always at the expence of the general welfare. Sensible of this, Edward had long wished to reduce that incursive people, and had ordered Lewellyn to do homage for his territories: which summons the Welsh prince refused to obey, unless the king's own son should be delivered as a hostage for his safe return. The king was not displeased at this refusal, as it served to give him a pretext for his intended invasion. He therefore levied an army against Lewellyn, and marched into his country with certain assurance of success.

Upon the approach of Edward, the Welsh prince took refuge among the inaccessible mountains of Snowdon, and there resolved to maintain his ground, without trusting to the chance of a battle. These were the steep retreats that had for many ages before defended his ancestors against all the attempts of the Norman and Saxon conquerors. But Edward, equally vigorous and cautious, having explored every part of his way, pierced into the very centre of Lewellyn's territories, and approached the Welsh army in its last retreats. Here, after extorting submission from the Welsh prince, the king retired. But an idle prophecy, in which it was foretold, by Merlin, that Lewellyn was to be the restorer of Brutus's empire in Britain, was an inducement sufficiently strong to persuade this prince to revolt once more, and hazard a decisive battle against the English. With this view he marched into Radnorshire; and passing the river Wey, his troops were surprised and defeated by Edward Mortimer, while he himself was absent from his army, upon a conference with some of the barons of that country. Upon his return, seeing the dreadful situation of his affairs, he ran desperately into the midst of the enemy, and

quickly found that death he so ardently sought for. David, the brother of this unfortunate prince, soon after fell in the same cause; and with him expired the government, and the distinction of the Welsh nation. It was soon after united to the kingdom of England, made a principality, and given to the eldest son of the crown. Foreign conquest might add to the glory, but this added to the felicity of the kingdom. The Welsh were now blended with the conquerors; and, in the revolution of a few ages, all national animosity was entirely forgotten.

Soon after, the death of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, gave him hopes of adding also Scotland to his dominion. The death of this princess produced a most ardent dispute about the succession to the Scottish throne, being claimed by no less than twelve competitors. The claims, however, of all the other candidates were reduced to three, who were the descendants of the Earl of Huntingdon by three daughters: John Hastings, who claimed in right of his mother, as one of the co-heiresses of the crown; John Baliol, who alledged his right, as being descended from the eldest daughter, who was his grandmother; and Robert Bruce, who was the actual son of the second daughter. This dispute being referred to Edward's decision, with a strong degree of assurance he claimed the crown for himself, and appointed Baliol his deputy.

Baliol being thus placed upon the Scottish throne, less as a king than as a vassal, Edward's first step was sufficient to convince that people of his intentions to stretch the prerogative to the utmost. Upon the most frivolous pretences, he sent six different summonses for Baliol to appear in London, at different times in one year; so that the poor Scottish king soon perceived that he was possessed of the name only, but not the authority of a sovereign. Willing, therefore, to shake off the yoke of so troublesome a master, Baliol revolted, and procured the pope's absolution from his former oath of homage.

But no power the Scots could bring into the field was able to withstand the victorious army of Edward. He overthrew their forces in many engagements, and thus becoming undisputed master of the kingdom, he took every precaution to secure his title, and to abolish those distinctions which might be apt to keep the nation in its former independence. Baliol was carried a prisoner to London; and he carefully destroyed all records and monuments of antiquity, that inspired the Scots with a spirit of national pride.

These expeditions, however, terminated rather in glory than

advantage: the expences which were requisite for carrying on the war, were not only burdensome to the king, but even, in the event, threatened to shake him on his throne. In order at first to set the great machine in movement, he raised considerable supplies by means of his parliament; and that august body was then first modelled by him into the form in which it continues to this day. As a great part of the property of the kingdom was, by the introduction of commerce, and the improvement of agriculture, transferred from the barons to the lower classes of the people, so their consent was thought necessary for the raising any considerable supplies. For this reason, he issued writs to the sheriffs, enjoining them to send to parliament, along with two knights of the shire, (as in the former reign,) two deputies from each borough within their county; and these provided with sufficient power from their constituents, to grant such demands as they should think reasonable for the safety of the state. One of the first efforts, therefore, was to oblige the king's council to sign the Magna Charia, and to add a clause, to secure the nation for ever against all impositions and taxes without the consent of parliament. This the king's council (for Edward was at that time in Flanders) readily agreed to sign; and the king himself, when it was sent over to him, after some hesitation, thought proper to do the same. These concessions he again confirmed upon his return; and though it is probable he was averse to granting them, yet he was at last brought to give a plenary consent to all the articles that were demanded of him. Thus, after the contest of an age, the Magna Charta was finally established; nor was it the least circumstance in its favour, that its confirmation was procured from one of the greatest and boldest princes that ever swayed the English sceptre.

In the mean time, William Wallace, so celebrated in Scottish story, attempted to rescue Scotland from the English yoke. He was younger son of a gentleman who lived in the western part of the kingdom. He was a man of gigantic statúre, incredible strength, and amazing intrepidity; eagerly desirous of independence, and possessed with the most disinterested spirit of patriotism. To this man had resorted all those who were obnoxious to the English government: the proud, the bold, the criminal, and the ambitious. These, bred among dangers and hardships themselves, could not forbear admiring in their leader a degree of patience, under fatigue and famine, which they supposed beyond the power of human nature to endure; he soon, therefore, became the principal object of their affection