do with their wool than the sheep that wear it, as to any artificial and curious drapery." In Edward III.'s time this was altered. He invited a great many of the clever Flemish weavers to come over to England, and teach the English to make fine and beautiful cloth. This trade was very welcome to the English, and enriched them very much.

66

'Happy the yeoman's house into which one of these Dutchmen did enter, bringing industry and wealth along with them. Such who came in strangers among them soon after went out bridegrooms, and returned son-in-laws, having married the daughters of their landlords. Yea, those yeomen, in whose houses they dwelt, soon proceeded gentlemen, gaining great estates." This has ever since been one of the great trades of England.

14. When the Flemish weavers set up their looms and taught the English to weave cloth, of course they wanted workmen. Many serfs escaped from their masters, came to Norwich and other towns, and learnt to weave; and if they could manage to stay there a year and a day without being caught they were free, and the masters could never make them go back again. Thus there were not nearly as many serfs as there used to be, and the masters had often to hire free labourers for money, to plough and sow for them.

15. But after the Black Death there were very few labourers left, and then the same thing happened which always will happen when work is plentiful and men are scarce. The men asked for higher wages, but the masters did not want to pay them. The king's council interfered, and made a law Statutes of that all the labourers were to work for their masters

labourers. for the very same wages that they used to have before

the plague. Masters were also forbidden to pay any higher wages than they used to pay then. If the men disobeyed they were to be put in prison. Not long afterwards a still more cruel punishment was ordered. If any of the labourers went away, and the master could catch them, he was to burn the letter F, for fugitive, into their foreheads with a hot iron.

16. But all would not avail; the people had begun to learn their value and their power; they joined together, and stood by each other, refusing to take the low wages; and those who had the means helping those who had not. Rulers know now that

it is no use to make laws saying what wages men are to take or masters are to give; they must settle that between themselves; and all the law does is to hinder either party from violence or injury to the other. But in those days rulers had not yet dis

covered this; they had to learn it by experience, and by very hard experience. Fresh and fresh laws were made to bind down the labourers; but they were determined to be free. We shall see the end of this great dispute farther on.

17. After the Battle of Poitiers, and when the Prince of Wales was established at Bordeaux, it is sad and disappointing to find that things went on very ill. Perhaps his great success had turned his head. Instead of being modest and courteous, as he was before, he became

The Black Prince in the south.

proud and arrogant, and so did the English who were with him. He ruled Aquitaine very badly. Froissart says that he himself "witnessed the great haughtiness of the English, who are affable to no other nation than their own;" they said of the gentleman of Gascony and Aquitaine "that they were neither on a level with them nor worthy of their society, which made the Gascons very indignant." We may fancy how the Gascons liked it, remembering how vain and boastful they were by

nature.

18. The Black Prince also went to Spain, and fought for a very cruel king there. He lost his health; he lost his popularity. He even became, for a time, very cruel himself. He 1370. besieged and took the town of Limoges in France,

and treated it even more harshly than his father would have liked to treat Calais. He permitted, and even encouraged, a most barbarous massacre of the inhabitants; so barbarous that Froissart says "there was not that day in the city of Limoges any heart so hardened, or that had any sense of religion, who did not deeply bewail the unfortunate events passing before their eyes; for upwards of 3000 men, women, and children were put to death that day. God have mercy on their souls! for they were veritable martyrs."

19. Almost all the people of Aquitaine and Gascony rebelled against him, and went over to the King of France. He came back to England very ill indeed, and for four years hardly anything was heard of him. This seems a sad and disastrous ending to a life that began so brilliantly; but just before he died he came forth once more to help his countrymen, and to win back their and our love and admiration.

20. The government of England had been going on very badly of late. Edward III. was growing old, and the dear, good Queen Philippa was dead. Edward took up with. another lady, named Alice Perrers, who became his great favourite, and did many things which offended

Discontent in England.

and disgusted the nation. One of the king's sons, named John, got most of the real power into his hands. Edward III., unfortunately for England, had many children, some of whose figures stand round his tomb in Westminster Abbey, on which his own beautiful image, with the flowing hair and noble face, reposes. The descendants of these childien quarrelled and fought for the kingdom of England through more than 100 years. The third son, John, was born at Ghent, in Flanders, and so was called John of Ghent, or Gaunt, as it used to be written then. He married the daughter and heiress of the Duke of Lancaster, great-niece of that Earl of Lancaster whom Gaveston had called an old hog;" so he gained her titles and estates, and became Duke of Lancaster. Though he was a clever and well-educated man he did not rule well; he took no pains to serve either the clergy or the people; the government was very wasteful, and only the courtiers were pleased. The wars he undertook were very expensive and very inglorious; he took a large army to France, which won no victories, but was nearly starved and ruined. The ministers whom he appointed to manage matters in England were altogether unworthy of trust; every one was discontented and uneasy.

66

21. It was not the barons now who stood forth against the tyranny, but the House of Commons, who were assembled in

1376. Parliament and the Black Prince.

what was afterwards called the "Good Parliament." Hitherto the Commons had never done much but vote for the taxes if they approved them, and present petitions against grievances; they had not attempted to meddle with the government. Once indeed, when Edward III. had attempted to consult them, they would not give any advice, very modestly saying that they were "too ignorant and simple" to form an opinion on such great matters. Now, however, things were so bad that something must assuredly be done against John of Gaunt and his ministers, and the king's favourite Alice; they declared that they would have things reformed.

22. But where were they to look for a leader-a leader brave and great enough to stand against the king, and the Duke of Lancaster, and the government? Now was the time when the Black Prince came out again from his retirement, like the evening sun from behind the storm-clouds at Crecy. He had been living in the country, at Berkhampstead, very ill; often falling into fainting fits, which looked like death; but now that he saw his country's need he came forth from his quiet retreat, and was

carried to London. He had a palace of his own in the city close to where the Monument now stands, but that was too far from the parliament, which met in the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey. He was brought to the royal palace at Westminster, so that he might be carried from his sick bed to the parliament.

23. When the Commons saw him, and knew that he was come to take their part, to stand up for freedom and justice, their spirit and the spirit of the whole nation rose. The Commons threw away their humility, and stood out boldly; they made their complaints, and for that time they won their victory. John of Gaunt had to give way, and even to leave the council altogether. Alice Perrers also was banished, and the worst of the king's ministers deposed from their places.

Death of the prince.

24. This great and patriotic effort was the end of the Black Prince. It used up his last strength, and he died in the palace at Westminster. When it was known that he was dead the sorrow and consternation were inexpressible. Even his enemies grieved for him. The King of France, the son of that King John whom he had made prisoner at Poitiers, had special prayers and services said for him in the lovely Sainte Chapelle at Paris. But his own friends and relations, and his own country, could not be comforted at all. His aged father never recovered from it, and died the next year. One of his old fellow soldiers was so heart-broken that he refused to take any food, and died in a few days of grief and starvation. And the whole English nation mourned as it has, perhaps, never mourned before or since.

LECTURE XXIX.-MEDIEVAL ENGLAND.

The English people 500 years ago. The language. The writers. The friars. The clergy.

1. NOTWITHSTANDING all his victories, we have seen that Edward III. could not succeed in becoming King of France, but had to be contented, as well he might, with being King of England. Let us now learn something more of what England was at that time. The Americans have a saying that "it takes all sorts to make a nation." We will in the next two lectures find out what we can about some of the "sorts" who made up the English nation 500 years ago,-about the knights and squires, the country gentlemen, the clergymen, the ladies, the servants, the poor people,-and see if they were at all like the same class of people now; and, again, about some people of whom we do not see much in England at present, but of whom there were plenty in those days-the monks and nuns, and the friars. We will try and see how they lived, what they liked, what they believed, and what they thought.

The language.

2. One great change had already taken place. Hitherto almost all the books we have had to read, to learn about the history of our country, were written in Latin; but the books which we must read to learn its condition at this time were written in English. It is very oldfashioned English; the spelling is different from our spelling, and there are a good many words here and there which we do not use now. But still it is English, and if we take a little trouble we soon get to read it quite easily. If we compare it with the old English before the Norman Conquest we see the change which was mentioned some time ago; we see many beautiful words which are not in the old language, and which are a great improvement to it; but the whole substance of the language is still that of our old German forefathers.

3. After the Norman Conquest the king and the upper classes all spoke French, and it is very strange to think that all the