KING JOHN OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

BOYHOOD SLANDERS-HENRY AND RICHARD-EARL JOHN.

IN all the family contentions and plottings of the household of Henry II., the Queen and three elder sons, Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, largely participated; and this entirely to the exclusion of the boy John.

Attention to dates alone suffices to acquit John. He was born on Christmas eve, A.D. 1166-7, at the King's manor-house in Oxford. He was thus, throughout these domestic squabbles, a mere boy, younger by ten years than his brother Richard, (born 1157.) Yet does History (so-called) even thus early slander him : and, oblivious of chronology, impute to hin. the crimes and vices of his seniors.

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John was knighted at Windsor by his father, in the 13th year of his age, in April 1180; and, according to many "Chronicle writers, he proceeded to Ireland as "King.”

Arriving there, he "employed"-so they mendaciously tell—" the money destined for the troops that accompanied him, for the gratification of his own covetousness." Precocious" covetousness indeed! no less precocious "sovereignty!" As to the latter, when he went to Ireland, he was in his 19th, not 13th year.

John was the favourite child of his parents at home; but how he could be sent out with a few scores of knights and soldiers to

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take upon himself the sole sovereignty of Ireland, we are puzzled to make out. Is there any solution of the difficulty? Let us see: Giraldus Cambrensis was there, as guardian of the whole expedition! The vanity of this man was such, that he might persuade the court of Henry II. that he, related in blood, and doubly related by alliance, to all the old Kings of Ireland, and such of the old nobility as were worth being related to, could induce them to submit to the rule of this boy and his guardian and chaplain!! Here, I believe, we have the origin of the conquering kingly expedition to Ireland by John. Here, likewise, I find the explanation of the many libels on our King in relation to this expedition. Giraldus writes concerning it, and gives as the cause of its utter failure, the reckless, prodigal living, and folly of John and his knightly followers, when in garrison at Dublin Castle. They never took the field against any enemy, but spent their days and nights in folly and "riotous living;" till, on the expiration of eight months, Earl John returned to England, leaving his chaplain to bring over the people and their rulers to submission to English rule by his powers of persuasion!

But what are the facts to be placed over-against the peevish nonsense of the monk? The Irish" Annals" inform us that John complained heavily to his father of Hugo de Lacy, the Viceroy of Ireland, being jealous of his superseding him in his sovereignty, and of his throwing every obstacle in the way of his success as a conqueror of Ireland.

In consequence of these representations made to his father in England, John obtained his recall, when the entire administration of affairs, with the chief command of the forces, was given to the brave John de Curcy; with a recall for Hugo de Lacy, the Viceroy of Ireland, who was then exercising a power independent on, and opposed to that of, the crown of England: which recall Hugo de Lacy treated with contempt-he remaining in Ireland, and exercising kingly authority notwithstanding.

No sooner had Henry II. closed his mortal career, by a sudden

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and mysterious death, in Normandy, A.D. 1189, than Richard, his son, succeeded to the throne of England, and his father's possessions in Normandy and other provinces in France.

One of the first acts of his reign was to give to his brother John the earldom of Gloucester, with the heiress of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, together with the castles of Marlborough, Lutegarshale, Bolsover, Nottingham, and Lancaster; with the honour of William Peveral, and also the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset. Soon after this, or in five months from his coming to the crown of England, on December 11th, Richard sailed from Dover to Calais, on his way to Paris, there to meet his fellow-crusader, Philip Augustus, King of the French, in whose company he set out for the Holy Land, at the head of three or four hundred thousand men of all arms, and the usual tag-rag of camp-followers.

To govern the kingdom of England, with the dependencies in Normandy and neighbouring provinces, Richard appointed William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, his Chancellor, and the Bishop of Durham, as Regents of the kingdom.

No sooner had Richard left the shores of England for the Holy Land, than William of Ely, the Regent and Chancellor, revoked the King's grants made to his brother Earl John; and even laid siege to Nottingham Castle,1 and refused to surrender to him the several castles 2 which the King had given to him.

Whatever may have been the origin of this dispute between the Chancellor (of whom much onward) and Earl John, it soon assumed a national importance, and required a great council of the Barons of the realm to settle it; when the following agreement was come to :- "That the dispute between Earl John and William of Ely, the Chancellor, should be set at rest, through the mediation of the Archbishop of Rouen, and the Bishops of Durham, London, Winchester, Bath, Rochester, and Coventry, with other faithful servants of our Lord the King." I relegate details to a note.3

1 Roger de Wendover, vol. ii. pp. 78-86. 2 Hoveden's Annals, vol. ii. p. 225. 3 See Appendix, Note A.