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a deep misfortune to mankind, for it perpetuates ignorance and gives error the countenance of those authorities, which ought to sanction nothing but eternal truths.

Within these few years there was at Oxford a high round tower called Bacon's tower, or study, and it is believed to have been the seat of his experiments and those of his assistants. Here too the vulgar placed HIS BRAZEN HEAD, one of the vagaries of that age. William of Malmesbury, the historian, tells us very gravely of Pope Sylvester II., who flourished in the 11th century, that he made a brazen head under certain aspects of the planets, which would speak when spoken to, and oraculously answer such questions as were proposed to it. After this foolish story had got into the world, without any other foundation than the Pope's being a great mathematician, there never arose in any country a person of extraordinary abilities, especially in those sciences that were least cultivated, but presently he was reported to have made a brazen head.

Hence Robert Grouthead, Bishop of Lincoln, was reported by an ancient writer of his life in verse, to have made such a BRAZEN HEAD, when he was master of arts at Oxford, which being broken by some accident, the relics were said to have been kept in a vault under Lincoln College. And indeed this story was so universally spread, and so firmly believed among the vulgar, that because Roger Bacon was his disciple, they could not help supposing that he must be as learned in these secret arts as his master, and therefore they bestowed a BRAZEN head upon him too, in conjunction with Friar Bungy. These two learned friars were said to be no less than seven years in framing it, and the matter about which they were to inquire, was, whether it might not be possible to build a wall of Brass round this island? But as they had a great many things upon their hands, they forgot the time at which their head was to speak, and so lost the opportunity of hearing the answer distinctly, and thus their labour being in vain, and the head in a manner useless, it was demolished. But of all the great men who have dealt in brazen heads, Albertus Magnus was the most extraordinary; for he is said to have made not only a head, but a man who answered questions very readily and truly when demanded, and was also so flippant with his tongue, that Thomas Aquinas, a reserved and contemplative person, and pupil to Albertus Magnus, it was reported knocked the idol to pieces to stop its talking.

EDWARD THE FIRST,

INCLUDING LLEWELLYN, PRINCE OF WALES, WILLIAM WALLACE,

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KING EDWARD I. REMOVING THE STONE FROM SCONE, IN SCOTLAND.

THIS Prince was born in 1238, and from his youth exhibited in the activity of his mind, and in energy and enterprize, a very opposite character to that of his father Henry III., whose duplicity and tyranny had repeatedly driven his subjects into open rebellion, and whose tottering throne was in the latter years of his reign entirely upheld by the genius of his son. He commanded, as we have seen in the life of Simon de Montfort, a division of the royal army at Lewes, and as far as he was concerned, obtained a decisive victory; and to him his father was indebted for the overthrow of the Barons at Evesham.

Previously to that battle, he had been kept in the custody of the Barons, but he arranged with Roger Mortimer an ingenious plan for his escape. Mortimer, by means of a third friend, made the Prince a present of a very fleet horse, and acquainted him with the use he ought to make of it. Glad to avail himself of any chance of recovering his freedom, Edward feigned himself unwell, and in want of exercise on horseback. Leicester, who had no conception of what was meditated, granted him permission to ride out; but with great precaution; for, besides his usual guard, he appointed several gentlemen to accompany him, with injunc WORTHIES, No. 3,

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tions to keep always near him. The Prince, being come into the open fields, immediately breathed two or three horses. He then called for the one which had been lately presented to him, and, as if he had a mind to use him gently to his rider, walked him at some distance from his guard, being accompanied by the gentlemen, who kept close to him. When he came to a certain place, which he had before carefully observed, and which seemed proper for his design, he laid the reins on his horse's neck, and, clapping spurs to his sides, was at a considerable distance from his attendants before they recovered from their surprise at this action. They, however, pursued him at full speed; but he escaped to the Earl of Gloucester. Being soon after joined by many of his own partizans, as well as by several of the Barons, who were dissatisfied with the administration of Leicester, he found himself at the head of an army so formidable that his antagonist was obliged to retreat. At Evesham they came into conflict; and, after a long and bravely-contested engagement, the Earl of Leicester and his son were slain; and the confederate Barons being scattered, the Prince gained a complete and decisive victory, by which the royal authority was restored to his father.

England was thus soon restored to a state of perfect tranquillity; but the rage of civil discord was no sooner extinguished, than the foolish and pernicious spirit of crusading revived: for Henry having assembled his Parliament in April, 1268, at Northampton, both the King, and Ottobon, the Pope's legate, warmly recommended a new expedition for the recovery of the Holy Land; and Prince Edward, with several great barons, many knights, and a great multitude of common people, assumed the cross. While preparations were making for this expedition, another parliament was held at Marlborough, in November, in which several good laws were made, which are well known by the name of the Statutes of Marlborough.

After two years had been spent in preparations, Prince Edward embarked at Portsmouth, in May A.D. 1270, to join the king of France at Tunis; but that great and good king, Lewis IX., dying there of the plague, and the French army returning home, the prince was so resolved on this romantic expedition, that he proceeded to Palestine with his own little army. There this brave prince gave many proofs of his undaunted courage and military skill, and so much alarmed the Saracens, that an assassin was employed to murder him, who was killed in making the attempt, but not till he had wounded the prince in the arm with a poisoned knife, by which his life was in great danger.

While prince Edward was gathering barren laurels, and encountering real dangers in the Holy Land, his family, and his native country, stood much in need of his presence. In this interval the royal family sustained two great losses, by the death of Henry de Almaine, and of his father,

the king of the Romans: the former being basely murdered at Viterbo, in Italy, by his two exiled cousins, Guy and Simon de Montfort; and the latter dying of grief for the loss of his son, at Berkhamstead, April, 1272. King Henry, worn out by age and infirmities, was quite unequal to the task of government, which under his feeble administration became utterly contemptible. The great barons oppressed the people at their pleasure, the highways were infested by robbers, and the inhabitants of London, and some other cities, became very riotous and disorderly. As the king was returning from Norwich, where he had been suppressing one of these riots, he was taken ill at St. Edmundsbury, from whence being conveyed to Westminster by easy journeys, he there died, on the 16th November, 1272, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the fiftyseventh of his reign.

Though Edward I., eldest son of the late king, was in Palestine when his father died, the greatness of his character secured his peaceable succession, and persons of all ranks swore fealty to him with much alacrity. Edward was in Sicily, on his return from the Holy Land, when he received the news of his father's death, and of his own peaceable accession. Being informed at the same time, of the perfect tranquillity of his dominions, he made no great haste to take possession of the crown. After spending some time at Rome, and other parts of Italy, he visited the court of France, and performed his homage for the territories which he held of that crown. Having suppressed an insurrection in Gascony, and settled some commercial disputes with the Earl of Flanders, he embarked for England, landed at Dover, August 2, 1274, and was crowned at Westminster on the 19th of the same month, together with his queen, Eleanora, the amiable and affectionate companion of his travels. Indeed her affection had been put to extraordinary proof, for when the prince was wounded by a poisoned knife, in the Holy Land, she, at the hazard of her own life, sucked the poison from the wound, by which its deleterious effects were averted.

The new king's first care after his coronation, was to make strict inquiry into the affairs of the kingdom. To that purpose, he appointed commissioners to go through the several counties and take exact information concerning the Fiefs held of the crown, and the state they were in. They were likewise ordered to examine into and punish the misdemeanors of the magistrates, who for some time had but too much abused their authority in oppressing the subjects. This first step produced a wonderful effect among the people. It was plain from thence that the king intended to govern in a very different manner from his father and grandfather, and every one expected with assurance the happy fruits of the maxims he was following to preserve himself a reign of peace and tranquillity.

This affair being ended, Edward seriously set about putting the coin to rights, which had been very much altered and adulterated during the troubles of the late reign. Upon information that the Jews were chiefly concerned in this business, he caused all that were in the kingdom to be seized in one day, that the guilty might not escape. Which done, after a strict examination, two hundred and eighty of them, convicted of clipping and coining, or putting off false money, received sentence of death, and were excuted without mercy.

The prodigious increase of the riches of the clergy and monasteries, had been for a long time a subject of complaint, without any one being able, hitherto, to find out an effectual method to put a stop to a thing so prejudical to the state. The barons who had exacted from King John the charter, had taken care to insert a clause, expressly forbidding all persons to alienate their lands to the church. But this prohibition, as well as several others, had not been well observed. The complaints upon this head were renewed in the beginning of this reign, in which every one thought he had reason to hope all grievances would be redressed. It was demonstrated to the king, that in process of time, all the lands would be in the clergy's possession, if people were suffered to go on to alienate their estates to the church. And, indeed, the church never dying, always acquiring and never alienating, it could not be but that her riches should increase immensely, and in the end all the lands of the kingdom would be in her hands. Edward having maturely considered this affair, summoned the parliament, and proposed the making a law to reform this abuse. The proposal was received with joy, and a statute was made whereby all persons were forbid to dispose of their estates to societies which never die, without the king's express consent. This statute was called the statute of Mortmain, because it was intended to prevent estates from falling into dead hands, that is, hands of no service to the king and the public, without hopes of their ever changing their owners.

During the troubles of the two late reigns, several persons had appropriated to themselves lands which belonged not to them. To remedy this evil, and to give every one his due, the parliament passed an act, which imported that all who were in possession of contested estates, should be obliged to show how they came by them, and produce their title before the judges, in order to be examined into. This statute, from the English word warrant, was styled quo warranto. Under the colour of putting the statute of quo warranto in execution, he published a proclamation enjoining all persons that held lands of the crown, to lay their titles before the judges of the realm. This proclamation was looked upon as a very great grievance. A stop was put to it by the courage of the Earl of Warren. The earl having made his appearance

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