1152

the divorced wife of the French King. Thus powerful in France, he invaded England, to wrest from Stephen the crown of his grandfather; but the sudden death of Stephen's eldest son, Eustace, hindered the war, and a treaty was made at Winchester, by which Henry was acknowledged heir to the English throne, while William, surviving son of Stephen, was to inherit the earldom

A.D.

1154 of Boulogne and the private domains of his father.

A.D.

Further difficulties were prevented by the death of Stephen in less than a year afterwards at Dover.

QUESTIONS.-1. What led to the re- | fought in his third invasion? Why so newal of the war in Normandy? Who called? obtained the dukedom? By what victory ?

2. What accident happened on the homeward voyage? How did it occur? For whose sake did William sacrifice himself? What effect had the news on the King? What event secured Henry in the possession of Normandy?

3. To whom did Henry require his nobles to swear fealty? Whom did he cause her to marry? Where did Henry die? What caused his death?

4. Who claimed the vacant throne? What considerations favoured his claim? Who proclaimed him King? How did he gain the leading clergy to his side?

5. Where was Henry buried? Where was a meeting subsequently held? What did Stephen there promise? What did he thus gain? What was the result of his allowing the barons to build castles?

6. Who was the first to draw the sword for Maud? What battle was

7. Describe the battle. Who were victorious? When was peace made? What is remarkable about its terms? 8. Where did Maud land? What did Stephen permit her to do? How was the country divided in the civil war which followed? What was the policy of the barons? Who were the greatest sufferers? What was the state of the country?

9. Whose cause was at first successful? What estranged her supporters? Whither did she flee? How did Stephen recover the throne?

10. How did Maud escape from Oxford? How long after that did she remain in England? Where did she then go? Why?

11. What possessions did young Henry acquire in France? What step did he then take? What stopped the war? Where was a treaty made? Its terms? How were further difficulties prevented?

CONTEMPORARY FOREIGN EVENTS.

1. 1096.-The First Crusade set out for the Holy Land. It was preached by Peter the Hermit in 1095, to rescue Jerusalem from the Turks. (See 1076.) It reached Constantinople in 1097; Antioch was taken in 1098, and Jerusalem in 1099, when Godfrey, the leader of the Crusade, was proclaimed King of Jerusalem.

2. 1099.-The Cid Roderigo (the great national hero of Spain) died. His reputed exploits are celebrated in numerous romances, founded on old Spanish ballads and popular poems. His career extended from

1064 till his death. He belonged to a noble family of Castile. He was twice banished, and for a time served with the Moors against both Saracens and Christians. The Moors are supposed to have given him the name of The Cid, which is an Arabic title, meaning "lord."

3. 1130.-The Norman kingdom of Sic.ly, including both the island of Sicily and the south of Italy, was founded by Count Roger II., son of Roger I. (See 1061.) In the previous century, Norman adventurers had conquered the south of Italy. They had crossed to the island of Sicily in 1062. Sicily was united with the German Empire by the marriage of Henry VI. to Constance of Sicily. Their son, Frederick II., succeeded to both dignities in 1197. (See 1282.)

4. 1138.-Conrad of Franconia and Henry the Lion of Saxony strove for the imperial crown. Henry (who was supported by the Pope) was head of the house of Welf; and in a great battle in 1040 the party 'cries were first used, "Hie Waiblingen! ""Hie Welf!" (See 1077.) As the struggle between these families, as well as the principles which they represented, had its chief theatre in Italy, their names assumed the Italian forms, Ghibelini and Guelphi.

5. 1139.-Count Alfonso, having defeated the Moors, was declared first King of Portugal, as Alfonso I.

6. 1147.-The Second Crusade, led by Louis VII. of France and Conrad III. of Germany, failed; and the crusaders returned to Europe. QUESTIONS.-1. What was the ob- | Sicily united with the German Empire? ject of the First Crusade? Who preached it? When did it reach Jerusalem? Who was proclaimed King there? 2. Who was the great national hero of Spain? When did he live? What is the meaning of the title "Cid"? -3. Who founded the Norman kingdom of Sicily? How and when was

-4. When did the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibelines begin? What was its origin? When were these party names first used? How is their present form accounted for?5. Who was the first King of Portugal? Whom did he overthrow?-6. Who led the Second Crusade? What was its fate?

1. CLOSELY interwoven with the Feudal System was Chivalry or Knighthood. As a knight, the King was on a level with the poorest gentleman, and passed through the same training,serving first as a page, and then as an esquire, before he received his golden spurs and took the vows of knighthood. The night before this ceremony, the candidate for knightly honours held his vigil; when, within some dimly lit aisle, amid the tombs of the fallen brave, he kept a lonely and silent watch over the arms he was about to assume.

2. The Knight, when fully equipped, was clad from head to heel in armour formed of plates riveted firmly together: be

low this he wore a dress of soft leather. On his helmet was a crest; on his three-pointed shield a device, -his coat-of-arms. His chief weapon was the lance; but, besides, he wore a two-handed sword, and a poniard called "the dagger of mercy," used to kill a fallen foe; and he not unfrequently carried a battleaxe or mace. This last a club with iron head studded with spikes-was the favourite instrument of war among the Norman clergy, who were often seen on the battlefield with a black cassock over their shining armour.

3. The Templars were a famous order of military monks, founded in 1118 A.D. They wore over their armour a long

scarlet mantle, with an eight-pointed cross of white sewed on the right shoulder. Their robe of peace was white. The Crusaders also were distinguished by crosses of various colours. The English wore white, the French red, the Flemings green, the Germans black, and the Italians yellow.

4. The chief sport of chivalry was the Tournament or joust. It was held within an enclosed space called the lists. Ladies and nobles sat around in raised galleries to witness the sport, while the lower orders thronged outside the barriers. At each end of the lists tents were pitched for the rival knights. Then arose the clinking of hammers, as the rivets were closed by the armourers or smiths, at that time an important and honoured body of craftsmen. With flourish of trumpets the heralds proclaimed the titles of the knights, as they rode into the lists; and the cry, "Largesse! largesse!" by which the proclamation was followed, drew showers of gold and silver coins from the galleries.

5. In the middle of the lists stood the challengers, awaiting their adversaries. These, riding up, touched with their lances

the shields of those with whom they chose to contend. If the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was to be a l'outrance,-that is, for life or death, and with sharp weapons as in battle; while touching with lance reversed signified the more peaceful intention of using blunted weapons in a trial of strength. At sound of trumpet the combatants dashed at full gallop from opposite ends of the lists, and met in the midst with a terrible shock. When the knights were equally matched, the lances flew into splinters, and the horses were thrown back on their haunches; but when one struck with stronger and truer aim the helmet or the shield of his rival, the unlucky knight was hurled from the saddle to the ground, stunned, bleeding, and bruised by his heavy armour.

6. This "gentle and joyous sport," as the Norman minstrels called it, generally lasted two or three days. The victor in the tilting of the first day, besides winning the horses and armour of those whom he vanquished, had the privilege of naming some lady, who, as Queen of Love and Beauty, presided over the remaining sports. The second day was often devoted to a mêlée, in which the knights fought in bands, till a signal to stop was given, by the King or chief noble present casting down his baton. The conqueror in the mêlée knelt, with all the stains of the conflict on him, to receive a crown of honour from the hands of the Queen of Love and Beauty.

7. After the tilting, the lower classes held sports, the favourite being archery, bull-baiting, and playing at quarter-staff. The last was a kind of cudgel-playing; the staff was a pole about six feet long, which the combatants grasped in the middle-striking, parrying, and thrusting with either end. Very similar to the tournament was the trial by combat; which, like the ordeal of the English, was the Norman appeal to the justice of Heaven.

8. In the reign of Henry II. the Grand Assize was instituted as a mode of deciding disputed cases. The verdict was given by four knights chosen by the sheriff, and sixteen others named by these four. The public business of the realm was transacted by the Curia Regis, which at the Conquest took the place of the Witena-gemot.

'Mélée. Pron. mala'; a confused hand-to-hand conflict: from Fr. mêler, to mix.