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2. Constitution of Switzerland.-The 13 cantons were united by a solemn treaty, which stipulated the proportional succours to be furnished by each in the case of foreign hostility, and the measures to be followed for securing the union of the states, and accommodating domestic differences. With respect to its internal government and economy, each canton was independent. Of some the constitution was monarchical, and of others republican. All matters touching the general league were transacted either by letters sent to Zurich, and thence officially circulated to all the cantons, or by conferences. The general diet, where two deputies attended from each canton, was held once a-year, the first deputy of Zurich presiding. The catholic and protestant cantons likewise held their separate diets on occasional emergencies.

3. The Swiss, when at peace, employed their troops for hire in foreign service, judging it a wise policy to keep alive the military spirit of the nation, and the armies thus employed have been equally distinguished for their courage and fidelity. The industry and economy of the Swiss are proverbial; and their country supports a most abundant population from the zealous promotion of agriculture and manufactures.

XXI.-State of Europe (continued) in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and part of the Fifteenth Centuries.

and

1. The rival claims of superiority between the popes emperors still continued. Henry VII., the successor of Albert, vindicated his right by the sword, triumphantly fought his way to Rome, where he was solemnly crowned, and imposed a tribute on all the states of Italy. His sudden death was suspected to be the consequence of papal resentment. It was in his time that the seat of the popedom was transferred by Clement V. from Home to Avignon, 1309, where it remained till 1377. The factions of Italy were the cause of this removal. Lewis of Bavaria, the successor of Henry, deprived and excommunicated by John XXII., revenged himself by deposing the pope. This pontiff who had originally been a cobler, surpassed most of his predecessors in pride and tyranny. He kept his seat on the papal chair, and left at his death an immense treasure, accumulated by the sale of benefice: while his rival, the empero died in indigence.

*

2. His successor in the empire, Charles IV., published, in 1355, the imperial constitution, termed The Golden Bull, the fundamental law of the Germanic body, which reduced the number of electors to seven, and settled on them all the hereditary offices of state. These exemplified their new rights by deposing his son Wenceslaus [who had succeeded to the empire in 1378] for incapacity, 1400. Three separate factions of the French and Italian cardinals having elected three separate popes, the emperor Sigismund judged this division of the church to be a fit opportunity for his interference, to reconcile all differences, and establish his own supremacy. He summoned a gene

ral council at Constance, 1414, and ended the dispute by degrading all the three pontiffs, and naming a fourth, Martin Colonna. This division of the papacy is termed The great schism of the West.

3. The spiritual business of the council of Constance was no less important than its temporal. John Huss, a disciple of Wickliff, was tried for heresy, in denying the hierarchy, and satirising the immoralities of the popes and bishops. He did not deny the charge; and refusing to confess his errors, was burnt alive. A similar fate was the portion of his friend and disciple, Jerome of Prague, who displayed at his execution the eloquence of an apostle, and the constancy of a martyr, 1416. Sigismund felt the consequence of these horrible proceedings; for the Bohemians opposed his succession to their vacant crown, and it cost him a war of 16 years to attain it.

4. Whatever was the imperial power at this time, it derived but small consequence from its actual revenues. The wealth of the Germanic states was exclusively possessed by their separate sovereigns, and the emperor had little more than what he drew from Bohemia and Hungary. The sovereignty of Italy was an empty title. The interest of the emperor in that country furnished only a source of faction to its princes, and embroiled the states in perpetual quarrels. A series of conspiracies and civil tumults form, for above 200 years, the annals of the principal cities. Naples and Sicily were ruined by the weak and disorderly government of the two Joannas. A passion which the younger of these conceived for a soldier, of the name of Sforza, raised him to the sovereignty of Milan; and her adoption, first of Alphonso of Arragon,

* So called from the gold seal suspended to it.-ED.

and afterwards of Lewis of Anjou, laid the foundation of those contests between Spain and France for the sovereignties of the two Sicilies, which afterwards agitated all Europe.

XXII.-History of England in the Thirteenth Century.

1. Henry III., who, at nine years of age, succeeded to the crown of England on the death of his father John, was a prince of amiable disposition, but of weak understanding. His preference for foreign favourites disgusted his nobles; and the want of economy in his government, and oppressive exactions, deprived him of the affection of his people. Montfort, Earl of Leicester, son of the leader of the crusade against the Albigenses, and brother-in-law of the king, conceived a plan for usurping the government; and, forming a league with the barons, on the pretext of reforming abuses, compelled Henry to delegate all the regal power into the hands of twenty-four of their number. These divided among themselves the offices of government, and new-modelled the parliament, by summoning a certain number of knights chosen from each county, a measure fatal to their own power; for these representatives of the people, indignant at Leicester's usurpation, determined to restore the royal authority; and they called on Prince Edward, a youth of intrepid spirit, to avenge his father's wrongs, and save the kingdom.

2. Leicester raised a formidable force, and in a successful engagement, at Lewes, in Sussex, 1264, defeated the royal army, and made both the king and prince his prisoners. He now compelled the impotent Henry to ratify his authority by a solemn treaty; and assuming the character of regent, he called a parliament, summoning two knights from each of the counties, and deputies from the principal boroughs: the first regular plan of the English House of Commons. This assembly, exercising, its just rights, and asserting with firmness the re-establishment of the ancient government of the kingdom, Leicester judged it prudent to release the prince from his confinement; and Edward was no sooner at liberty, than he took the field against the usurper, who, in the battle of Evesham, 4th August, 1265, was defeated and slain. Henry was now restored to his throne by the arms of his gallant son, who, after establishing domestic tranquillity, embarked in the last crusade with Lewis IX., and signa

lized his prowess by many valorous exploits in Palestine. He had the honour of concluding an advantageous truce for ten years with the sultan of Babylon, and was on his return to England when he received intelligence of his accession to the crown by the death of his father, 1272.

3. Edward I., in the beginning of his reign, projected the conquest of Wales. The Welsh, the descendants of the ancient Britons who had escaped the Roman and Saxon conquests, preserved their liberty, their laws, their manners, and their language. Their prince, Lewellyn, refusing his customary homage, Edward invaded Wales, and surrouuded the army of the prince, who retreated to the mountains, cut off all his supplies, and compelled him to an unqualified submission. The terms demanded were, the surrender of a part of the country, a large sum of money, and an obligation of perpetual fealty to the crown of England. The Welsh [provoked by the insolence of English borderers] infringed this treaty; and Edward marched his army into the heart of the courtry, where the troops of Lewellyn made a most desperate but ineffectual resistance. In a decisive engagement, in 1283, the prince was slain. His brother David, betrayed into the hand of the conqueror, was inhumanly executed on a gibbet; and Wales, completely subdued, was annexed to the crown of England. [During Edward's stay in Wales, his queen Eleanor gave birth to a son in the Castle of Carnarvon (A.D. 1284); and from this circumstance, he was declared Prince of Wales-a title which the eldest son of the reigning king of England has ever since borne.] With a policy equally absurd and cruel, Edward ordered the Welsh bards to be put to death wherever found; thereby insuring the perpetuation of their heroic songs, and increasing the abhorrence of the vanquished people for their barbarous conqueror.

4. The conquest of Wales inflamed the ambition of Edward, and inspired him with the design of extending his dominion to the extremity of the island. The designs of this enterprising monarch on the kingdom of Scotland invite our attention to that quarter; but previously require a short retrospect to its earlier history.

XXIII.-History of Scotland from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century.

1. The history of Scotland, before the reign of Mal

colm III., surnamed Canmore, is obscure, from the deficiency of historical records. This prince, by the defeat of Macbeth, the murderer of his father Duncan, succeeded to the throne in 1057; and espousing the cause of Edgar Atheling, heir of the Saxon Kings of England, whose sister he married, he thus provoked a war with William the Conqueror, which was equally prejudicial_to_both kingdoms. In an expedition of Malcolm into England, it is alleged that, after concluding a truce, he was compelled by William to do homage for his kingdom. The truth is, that this homage was done for the territories in Cumberland and Northumberland won by the Scots, and held in vassalage of the English crown; though this homage was afterwards absurdly made the pretext of a claim of feudal sovereignty over all Scotland. In a reign of 27 years, Malcolm supported a spirited contest with England, both under William I. and his son Rufus; and to the virtues of his queen Margaret his kingdom, in its domestic policy, owed a degree of civilization remarkable in those ages of barbarism. [Both Malcolm and his eldest son were killed at the siege of Alnwick, (A.D. 1093.) After the death of Malcolm, his throne was usurped first by his brother Donald Bane, and afterwards by Duncan his natural son, but England at length interposed and placed Edgar, lawful son of Malcolm, upon the throne, who, after a reign of nine years, distinguished by no remarkable event, died (A.D. 1106).]

2. Alexander I. [brother and successor to Edgar], defended with equal spirit and good policy, the independence of his kingdom; and his son David I., celebrated even by the democratic Buchanan as an honour to his country and to monarchy, won from Stephen, and annexed to his crown, the whole earldom of Northumberland. In those reigns we hear of no claim of the feudal subjection of Scotland to the crown of England; though the accidental fortune of war afterwards furnished a ground for it. William I. (the Lion), taken prisoner at Alnwick by Henry II., was compelled, as the price of his release, to do homage for his whole kingdom; an obligation which his successor Richard voluntarily discharged, as deeming it to have been unjustly extorted.

3. On the death of Alexander III. without male issue, in 1285, Bruce and Baliol, descendants of David I. by the female line, were competitors for the crown, and the

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