in this work, or any fuch remarks as I think would difagreeably interrupt the narration, I fhall throw into notes, and place them at the end of each volume, reciting the feveral paffages to which they refer, at the head of each note. There will allo be joined to thefe fome valuable pieces, not printed before, or printed in books that are in very few hands; and fome tranfcripts of charters, laws, ordinances, &c. which are too long to be inferted in the body of the hiftory, or which fome of my readers may like to fee in the original language.

The life of Henry the Second, which I have chofen to make my principal fubject, appears to me particularly inftructive, from the uncommon variety of the events it contains; from its being diftinguished by great virtues and great faults; by fudden and furprifing changes of fortune in the affairs of this kingdom; by the fubjection of Wales, of Scotland, and of Ireland; and by a glo. ry furpafling all military atchievements, the reformation of government, and the establishment of good laws, and wife inftitutions, beneficial to the public. These are objects deferving the attention. of all ages; and they who think it beft to contract the accounts of fuch events into narrow abridgments, feem rather to favour the idleness than confult the inftruction, or pleafure, of their readers. The greatest merit I can pretend to in compofing this hiftory will be a faithful compilation of all material facts, relating to my subject, from the most authentick evidence, that a very diligent and laborious fearch could procure. I fhall always prefer the authority of contemporary writers to that of others more diftant, and be moft directed by thofe who had the best opportunities of being informed of the truth, and the best understandings to judge of it in doubtful matters; unlefs, from an apparent bias on their minds, there is reafon to diftruft them as partial.

From

From the diftance of the times I write of, this advantage arifes (and to me it feems not a fall one) that I fhall be under no temptation to alter or disguise the truth of any facts, from a regard to prefent interefts or prefent paflions. The times we live in have no refemblance to thofe treated of here, either in the general state of publick affairs, or in the characters of eminent perfons, or in the conduct of particular bodies of men. Whatever, for inftance, is laid of the clergy during the course of this work, let it be always remembered that it is faid of the clergy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; that is, in the most corrupt and dark ages of popery, when the pure light of the gofpel was almoft extinguished, and the minifters of it were become a mere faction, combined together, under a foreign head, against the civil power. No part of that blame can fall upon the prefent clergy of England. On the contrary, there is nothing that should more endear to us our happy establishment in church and ftate, than an attentive review of the many evils we fuffered, when another religion, and, under the fanction of that, quite different notions of ecclefiaftical power prevailed in this kingdom. Even with regard to civil liberty, if the degree of it enjoyed by our ancestors be compared with that afcertained, confirmed, and fecured to us by our present conftitution, the advantage will be found fo great on our fide, that it will make us more fenfible of our felicity, and ftrengthen our zeal to maintain it. But at the fame time we shall fee that our claim of rights is fupported on very ancient foundations; and that even the rudeft form of our government has always been animated by the spirit of freedom. May that fpirit continue to inspire and fupport it in the more perfect ftate, to which it has been gradually brought by the wisdom of many ages, and more particularly

by the Revolution in the year fixteen hundred and eighty eight; when the bounds of the royal prerogative were better marked out, and the privileges of the people more clearly defined and established, than at any other period from the Norman invafion, or even from the first fettlement of the Saxons in Britain.

THE

**********)

&*&*&***

THE

HISTORY

OF THE

Revolutions of England,

From the Death of EDWARD the Confeffor to the Birth of HENRY the Second.

T

HE kingdom of England, after having been harraffed by the invafions of the Danes, and fubject fucceffively to three kings of that nation, had been reftored to the Anglo-Saxons at the death of Hardicanute, by v. Malmsb. the election of Edward, furnamed the Confeffor, l. ii. de gest. Reg. Anone of the fons of King Ethelred by Emma of glor. f. 45Normandy. This prince, who was fitter for a monaftery than a throne, having reigned, under the direction of the great lords of his court, about four and twenty years, died without iffue, in the year of our Lord one thousand and fixty fix. Towards the end of his life he had called over from Hungary his nephew Edward, fon to his elder V. Malmb. brother Edmond Ironfide, with an intention to fect 50. make him his fucceffor. Edmond Ironfide, at the death of his father, King Ethelred, had been acknowledged by the English as their fovereign, and had defended his kingdom, with extraordinary valour, against the Danes, till, by the treachery of

ibidem, f.52.

V. Chron.

Saxon. fub

p.

150.

Malmsb.

V. S. Du

Chron. fub

Brompt.

Chr. p. 907.

one of his nobles, he was forced to divide it with ann. 1016. Canute king of Denmark, and foon afterwards P. 148, 149, died. He left two fons, whom Canute fent into Sweden, that they might be there put to death; 1. ii. f 4. as fome hiftorians relate but others fay, with nelm. & Di- more probability, that he ordered one of his Danes ceto abbrer. to carry them into Denmark; and that the man, ann. 1017. moved with pity for these innocent victims of a barbarous policy, inftead of obeying that command, went with them into Sweden; the king of which country, being apprehenfive of bringing on himself a war with Canute, by protecting them there, conveyed them from thence into Hungary, where Edwin, the elder of them, died without pofterity. The younger, named Edward, married Agatha, fifter-in-law to Solomon king of Hungary, and daughter to the emperor Henry the Second. When the English, after the deceafe of the two fons of Canute, were again enabled to chufe a king of their own royal family, this prince would inconteftibly have had the best title, if the Saxon conftitution had always difpofed of the crown in a lineal courfe of defcent. But the notion of a ftrict hereditary right not being hitherto fo established in England, as conftantly to direct V. Malmb. the fucceflion, Edward, Ethelred's younger fon, 1. ii. f. 45, with the afliftance of Godwin Earl of Weffex, whofe daughter he promifed to marry, was raised to the throne; and 'no notice was taken of his nephew during feveral years, till he was called home, at the defire of King Edward himself, and declared by that monarch, with the confent of the nation, heir to the crown. This could never have happened, if the election of his uncle, in preference to him, had not been efteemed a legal act : for no ufurper, without being forced to it by foreign or civil arms, would bring the perfon, whofe right he had invaded, to refide in his kingdom, with the rank of his fucceffor, during his own

152.