MARCUS WARD'S HISTORY READERS. The following volumes have been carefully prepared to meet the requirements of the New Code, under the editorship of J. G. HEFFORD, B.A., LOND., Head Master of Carlton Board School, Dewsbury. No. 1. TALES FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. No. 2. EARLY ENGLAND (To Death of Stephen). For STANDARD III. For STANDARD IV. For STANDARD V. 128 pages. Price 9d. 160 pages. Price 1/ 224 pages. Price 1/4 No. 3. MIDDLE ENGLAND (Plantagenets-Tudors). No. 4. MODERN ENGLAND (From James the First). - GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF SOVEREIGNS FROM HENRY II. TO ELIZABETH, DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY II. TO THE MIDDLE ENGLAND. 1154-1603. PART ONE: THE PLANTAGENETS-HOUSE OF ANJOU. 1.-HENRY II. 1154-1189. 1. Henry II. was only twenty-one years old when he became King of England. His father was Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, in France, and his mother was Matilda, daughter of Henry I. Geoffrey of Anjou used to wear in his hat a sprig of the broom-plant, called the planta-genista, and from these two words came the word Plantagenet, by which name Henry II. and several of the Kings who came after him were known. Stephen, the last sovereign of England, had usurped the throne, and Matilda, mother of Henry II., had long carried on a war with Stephen. At last GEOFFREY PLANTAGENET. it had been arranged between them that Stephen should remain King, but that, when he died, Henry, Matilda's son, should succeed him. Stephen did not live long after this had been settled, and when he died, no opposition was made to the succession of Henry II. 2. Although Henry was so young when he ascended the throne, he had had a great deal of experience in war and politics. He had spent most of his youth in France, and had been made Duke of Normandy; and upon the death of his father Geoffrey, he became also Count of Anjou and Maine. He married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France; and as she had much land in France, Henry was very powerful, even before he became King of England. From his father and mother he had received the provinces of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Touraine, and from his wife he received Guienne and Poitou. These provinces were more than one-third of the whole of France, and they were much richer and more important than those of the French King himself. 2.-LAW AND ORDER RESTORED IN ENGLAND. 1. When Henry came to the throne, he found England in a very bad condition. The long war between Matilda and Stephen had completely |