and did all he could to make the rival parties forget their quarrels. Then he left England again to make war upon Philip, and he never came back to this country. For the next four years England was ruled by Hubert Walter, who was Justiciar and Legate as well as Archbishop of Canterbury. He governed the country just in the same way as Henry II. had done, and he tried to make the people help themselves as much as possible. But he taxed the nation very heavily, to supply Richard with money for carrying on his war in France. At last some declined to comply with these exactions, and Hubert gave up the office of Justiciar, and Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Earl of Essex, became the new Justiciar. But he taxed the people more heavily still.

5. Meanwhile, Richard had not been very successful in his war with Philip. But he had made an alliances with several powerful princes, and he might perhaps have gained some great victory over the French King had he lived. Just when he was going to make peace with Philip, Richard heard that one of his vassals, the Viscount of Limoges, had found a great treasure buried on his land. Richard asked for the treasure, but the Viscount did not satisfy his greed, so Richard besieged his castle at Chaluz, and was wounded in the shoulder by an arrow during the siege. The castle was taken, and all the men in it were hanged except the archer, called Bertrand de Gourdon, who had shot Richard. Richard was dying of the wound, so he had Bertrand brought before him, and said "What have I done to you that you should take my life?" Bertrand replied "You killed my father and my two brothers

with your own hands, and you intended to hang me. I am now in your power, and you may torture me as much as you like; but I shall be happy in knowing that I have rid the world of such a monster as you." Richard immediately forgave the man, and ordered him to be set free; but, unknown to the King, he was cruelly put to death.

6. Soon after, Richard died. He was not nearly so great a man as his father, and he did very little for England. He would have done more had not his reign been chiefly occupied with warfare, for he was a statesman, and knew how to rule a country well. But war was what he loved most of all, and his many brave deeds in battle earned for him the name of the Lion-heart. Richard married Berengaria of Navarre, but he had no children by her. Queen Berengaria survived her beloved husband thirty-one years.

2 Rouen, on the Seine, in the north contracting parties to act together for of France.

defensive and offensive operations.

1. When Richard died, John felt he had obtained everything for which he had been planning so long. Young Arthur of Brittany, as the son of John's elder brother Geoffrey, was the next heir to the throne; but he was quite unknown in England, and was only

twelve years old. So John was elected King of England. Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, now became John's friend, as he had been Richard's, and he came over to England to prepare the way for John, while the latter was trying to arrange matters with Philip of France. Six weeks after Richard's death, John came over, and was crowned at Winchester.

2. Troubles began at once in France. The barons of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine chose Arthur as their Count instead of John, and Philip took the part of Arthur. There was a truce for a time, and then the war I broke out again. The people of Poitou rebelled against John, and Philip again took their part. Young Arthur thought this his own claim, so

a good time to put forward he attacked the fortress of Mirabeau, where John's mother, the old Queen Eleanor, widow of Henry II., then resided. But John made a rapid march to Mirabeau, defeated Arthur's army, and took Arthur himself prisoner.

3. What became of Arthur after that, no one can say with certainty. There seems to be no doubt, however, that he was foully murdered by his

cruel uncle. Some say that John stabbed him with his own hand, and then threw his body into the river Seine; others say that John ordered young Arthur's eyes to be put out with red-hot irons, but that Hubert de Burgh, to whom the cruel task was assigned, would not carry out the sentence. Several of Arthur's friends who were captured at the same time were starved to death in prison.

4. Philip immediately declared that John was Arthur's murderer, and he advanced with a large army against Normandy. John did hardly anything to defend his lands, and in a short time the whole of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and the greater part of Guienne were in Philip's hands. The aged Queen Eleanor died soon after, and her death was a great loss to John. She was a woman of vigorous intellect, and while she lived she helped her son very greatly. John made a few feeble attempts to win back his French lands from Philip, but without

success.

5. Thus Normandy became separated from the English crown, after a union of nearly a hundred and forty years-namely, from A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1204. The people of Normandy were not unwilling to pass under the dominion of the King of France, for John and the other Angevin kings were almost entire strangers to them. When they became subjects of France, they merely exchanged one foreign ruler for another. It was not at all a misfortune, either, for England that Normandy was lost, for now the King of England had only one country to think of instead of two, and the English people became more united than ever.

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