dangerous neighbour; an unkind and ungenerous relation. He was equally prodigal and rapacious in the management of the treafury; and, if he poffefled abilities, he lay fo much under the government of impetuous paffions, that he made little ufe of them in his adminiftration; and he indulged intirely the domineering policy, which fuited his temper, and which, if fupported, as it was in him, with courage and vigour, proves often more fuccessful in diforderly times, than the deepest forefight and most refined artifice. The monuments which remain of this prince in England are, the Tower, Weftminster-Hall, and London Bridge, which he built, Died August 2, 1100, aged 40. Hume. § 46. Another Character of WILLIAM RUFUS. Thus fell William *, furnamed Rufus, from his red hair and florid complexion, after he had lived four-and-forty years, and reigned near thirteen; during which time he oppreffed his people in every form of tyranny and infult. He was equally void of learning, principle, and honour; haughty, paffionate, and ungrateful; a fcoffer at religion, a fcourge to the clergy; vain-glorious, talkative, rapacious, lavish, and diffolute; and an inveterate enemy to the English, though he owed his crown to their valour and fidelity, when the Norman lords intended to expel him from the throne. In return for this inftance of their loyalty, he took all opportunities to fleece and enflave them; and at one time imprifoned fifty of the beft families in the kingdom, on pretence of killing his deer; fo that they were compelled to purchafe their liberty at the expence of their wealth, though not before they had undergone the fiery ordeal. He lived in a fcandalous commerce with proftitutes, profeffing his contempt for marriage; and having no legitimate iffue, the crown devolved to his brother Henry, who was fo intent fucceffion, that he paid very little regard to the funeral of the deceafed king. upon Smollett. the By the hand of Tyrrel, a French gentleman, remarkable for his addrefs in archery, attending him in the recreation of hunting, as William had difmounted after a chace. Tyrrel, impatient to fhew his dexterity, let fly at a ftag which fud. denly started before him: the arrow glancing from a tree, ftruck the king in his breaft, and inftantly flew him. x $47. Character of HENRY I. This prince was one of the most accomplished that has filled the English throne; and poffeffed all the qualities both of body and mind, natural and acquired, which he attained: his perfon was manly: which could fit him for the high station to his countenance engaging; his eyes clear, of his addrefs encouraged thofe who might ferene, and penetrating. The affability his wifdom; and though he often indulged be overawed by the fenfe of his dignity or his facetious humour, he knew how to temper it with difcretion, and ever kept at a distance from all indecent familiarities with his courtiers. His fuperior eloquence and judgment would have given him an afcendant, even if he had been born in a private ftation; and his perfonal bravery would have procured him refpect, even though it had been lefs fupported by art and policy. By his great progrefs in literature, he acquired the name of Beau Clerc, or the Scholar; but his application to fedentary pursuits abated nothing of the activity and vigilance of his government: and though the learning of that age was better fitted to corrupt than improve the understanding, his natural good fenfe preferved itfelf untainted both from the pedantry and fuperftition which were then fo prevalent among men of letters. temper was very fufceptible of the fentiments as well of friendship as refentment; and his ambition, though high, might be esteemed moderate, had not his conduct towards his brother fhewed, that he was too much difpofed to facrifice to it all the maxims of juftice and equity. Died December 1, 1135, aged 67, having reigned 35 years. Hume. His $48. Another Character of HENRY I. Henry was of a middle ftature and robust make, with dark brown hair, aud blue ferene eyes. He was facetious, fluent, and affable to his favourites. His capacity, naturally good, was improved and cultivated in fuch a manner, that he acquired the name of Beau Clerc by his learning. He was cool, cautious, politic, and pene trating; his courage was unqueftioned, and his fortitude invincible. He was dictive, cruel, and implacable, inexorable to offenders, rigid and severe in the execution of justice; and, though temperate in his diet, a voluptuary in his amours, which vin produced produced a numerous family of illegitimate iffue. His Norman descent and connections with the continent infpired him with a contempt for the English, whom he oppreffed in the most tyrannical manner. Smollett. § 49. Character of STEPHEN. England fuffered great miferies during the reign of this prince; but his perfonal character, allowing for the temerity and injuftice of his ufurpation, appears not liable to any great exception; and he feems to have been well qualified, had he fucceeded by a juft title, to have promoted the happiness and profperity of his fubjects. He was poffeffed of industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; was not deficient in ability, had the talent of gaining men's affections; and, notwithstanding his precarious fituation, never indulged himfelf in the exercise of any cruelty of revenge. His advancement to the throne procured him neither tranquillity nor happinefs. Died 1154. Hume. 50. Another Character of STEPHEN. Stephen was a prince of great courage, fortitude, and activity, and might have reigned with the approbation of his people, had he not been haraffed by the efforts of a powerful competitor, which obliged him to take fuch meafures for his fafety as were inconfiftent with the dictates of honour, which indeed his ambition prompted him to forego, in his first endeavours to afcend the throne. His neceffities afterwards compelled him to infringe the charter of privileges he granted at his acceffion; and he was inftigated by his jealoufy and refentment to commit the most flagrant outrages against gratitude and found policy. His vices, as a king, seem to have been the effect of troubles in which he was involved; for, as a man, he was brave, open, and liberal; and, during the fhort calm that fucceeded the tempeft of his reign, he made a progrefs through his kingdom, published an edit to reftrain all rapine and violence, and disbanded the foreign mercenaries who had preyed fo long on his people. Smollett. 51. Character of HENRY II. Thus died, in the 58th year of his age, and thirty-fifth of his reign, the greateft prince of his time for wisdom, virtue, and ability, and the most powerful in extent of dominion, of all those that had ever filled the throne of England. His character, both in public and private life, is almoft without a blemish; and he feems to have poffeffed every accomplishment, both of body and mind, which makes a man eftimable or amiable, He was of a middle ftature, ftrong, and well proportioned; his countenance was lively and engaging; his converfation affable and entertaining; his elocution eafy, perfuafive, and ever at command. He loved peace, but poffeffed both conduct and bravery in war; was provident without timidity; fevere in the execution of juftice without rigour; and temperate without aufterity. He preferved health, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was fomewhat inclined, by an abftemious diet, and by frequent exercise, particularly by hunting. When he could enjoy leifure, he recreated himself in learned converfation, or in reading; and he cultivated his natural talents by study, above any prince of his time. His affections, as well as his enmities, were warm and durable; and his long experience of ingratitude and infidelity of men never deftroyed the natural fenfibility of his temper, which difpofed him to friendship and fociety. His character has been tranfmitted to us by many writers who were his contemporaries; and it refembles extremely, in its moft remarkable ftrokes, that of his ma ternal grand father, Henry I.excepting only that ambition, which was a ruling paffion in both, found not in the first Henry fuch unexceptionable means of exerting itself, and pushed that prince into measures which were both criminal in themselves, and were the caufe of further crimes, from which lis grandfon's conduct was happily exempted. Died 1189. Hume. Thus died Henry, in the fifty-seventh year of his age (Hume fays 58) and thirty-fifth of his reign; in the course of which he had, on fundry occafions, dif played all the abilities of a politician, all the fagacity of a legislator, and all the magnanimity of a hero. He lived revered, above all the princes of his time; and his death was deeply lamented by his fubjects, whofe happinefs feems to have been the chief aim of all his endeavours. He not only enacted wholesome laws, but faw them executed with great punctuality. He was generous, even to admiration, with regard, to thofe who committed offences against his own perfon; but he never forgave the 3 B injuries injuries that were offered to his people, for atrocious crimes were punished feverely without refpect of perfons. He was of a middle fiature, and the most exact propor tion; his countenance was round, fair, and reddy; his blue eyes were mild and engaging, except in a tranfport of paffion, when they fparkled like lightning, to the terror of the beholders. He was broadchefted, ftrong, mufcular, and inclined to be corpulent, though he prevented the bad effects of this difpofition by hard exercife and continual fatigue; he was temperate in his meals, even to a degree of abftinence, and feldom or ever fat down, except at fupper; he was eloquent, agreeable, and facetious; remarkably courteous and polite; compaffionate to all in diflrefs; fo charitable, that he conftantly allotted onetenth of his houthold provifions to the poor, and in the time of dearth he maintained ten thousand indigent perfons, from the beginning of fpring till the end of autumn. His talents, naturally good, he had cultivated with great affiduity, and delighted in the converfation of learned men, to whom he was a generous benefactor. His memory was fo furpringly tenacious, that he never forgot a face nor a circumftance that was worth remembering. Though fuperior to his contemporaries in itrength, riches, true courage, and military skill; he never engaged in war without reluctance, and was fo averfe to bloodshed, that he expreffed an uncommon grief at the lofs of every private foldier: yet he was not exempt from human frailties; his paf. fions, naturally violent, often hurried him to excefs; he was prone to anger, tranfported with the luft of power, and particularly accufed of incontinence, not only in the affair of Rofamond, whom he is faid to have concealed in a labyrinth at Woodtock, from the jealous enquiry of his wife, but alfo in a fuppofed commerce with the French princess Adalais, who was bred in England as the future wife of his fon Richard. This infamous breach of honour and hofpitality, if he was actually guilty, is the fonleft ftain upon his character; though the fact is doubtful, and we hope the charge the lion-hearted, cœur de lion. He paffion ately loved glory; and as his conduct in the field was not inferior to his valour, he feems to have poffeffed every talent neceffary for acquiring it: his refentiments alfo were high, his pride unconquerable, and his fubjects, as well as his neighbours, had therefore reafon to apprehend, from the continuance of his reign, a perpetual scene of blood and violence. Of an impetuous and vehement fpirit, he was distinguished by all the good as well as the bad qualities which are incident to that character. He was open, frank, generous, fincere, and brave; he was revengeful, domineering, ambitious, haughty, and cruel, and was thus better calculated to dazzle men by the fplendour of his enterprizes, than either to promote their happiness, or his own grandeur by a found and well-regulated policy. As military talents make great impreffion on the people, he feems to have been much beloved by his English fubjects; and he is remarked to have been the first prince of the Norman line who bore a fincere affection and regard for them. He paffed, however, only four months of his reign in that kingdom: the crufade employed him near three years: he was detained about four months in captivity; the rest of his reign was spent either in war, or preparations for war against France: and he was fo pleafed with the fame which he had acquired in the Eaft, that he feemed deternined, notwithstanding all his paft misfor tunes, to have further exhaufted his kingdom, and to have expofed himself to new hazards, by conducting another expedition against the infidels. Died April 6, 1199. aged 42. Reigned ten years. Hume. $54. Another Character of RICHARDI. This renowned prince was tall, ftrong, ftraight, and well-proportioned. His arms were remarkably long, his eyes blue, and full of vivacity; his hair was of a yellowish colour; his countenance fair and comely, and his air majeftic. He was endowed with good natural understanding; his penetration was uncommon; he poffeffed a fund of manly eloquence; his converfation was fpirited, and he was admired for his talents of repartee; as for his courage and ability in war, both Europe and Afia refound with his praife. The Saracens ftilled their children with the terror of his name; and Saladine, who was an accomplished prince, admired his valour to fuch a degree of enthufiafm, that immediately after Richard Richard had defeated him on the plains of Joppa, he fent him a couple of fine Arabian horfes, in token of his efteem; a polite compliment, which Richard returned with magnificent prefents. Thefe are the fhining parts of his character, which, however, cannot dazzle the judicious obferver fo much, but that he may perceive a number of blemishes, which no hiftorian has been able to efface from the memory of this celebrated monarch. His ingratitude and want of filial affection are unpardonable. He was proud, haughty, ambitious, choleric, cruel, vindictive, and debauched; nothing could equal his rapacioufnefs but his profufion, and, indeed, the one was the effect of the other; he was a tyrant to his wife, as well as to his people, who groaned under his taxations to fuch a degree, that even the glory of his victories did not exempt him from their execrations; in a word, he has been aptly compared to a lion, a fpecies of animals which he refembled not only in courage, but likewife in ferocity. Smollett. $55. Character of JoHN. The character of this prince is nothing but a complication of vices, equally mean and odious, ruinous to himself and detructive to his people: cowardice, inactivity, folly, levity, licentioufnefs, ingratitude, treachery, tyranny, and cruelty; all thefe qualities too evidently appear in the feveral incidents of his life, to give us room to fufpect that the difagreeable picture has been anywife overcharged by the prejudice of the ancient hiftorians. It is hard to fay, whether his conduct to his father, his brother, his nephew, or his fubjects, was most culpable; or whether his crimes in thefe refpects were not even exceeded by the bafenefs which appeared in his tranfactions with the king of France, the pope, and the barons. His dominions, when they devolved to him by the death of his brother, were more extenfive than have ever fince his time been ruled by any English monarch. But he first loft, by his mifconduct, the flourishing provinces in France; the ancient patrimony of his family. He fubjected his kingdom to a fhameful vaffalage, under the fee of Rome; he faw the prerogatives of his crown diminished by law, and ftill more reduced by faction; and he died at laft when in danger of being totally expelled by a foreign power, and of either ending his life miferably in a prifon, or feeking fhelter as a fugitive from the purfuit of his enemies. The prejudices against this prince were fo violent, that he was believed to have fent an embaffy to the emperor of Morocco, and to have offered to change his religion and become Mahometan, in order to purchafe the protection of that monarch; but, though that ftory is told us on plaufible authority, it is in itfelf utterly improbable, except that there is nothing fo incredible as may not become likely from the folly and wickednefs of John. Died 1216. Hume. $56. Another Character of JoHN. John was in his perfon taller than the middle fize, of a good fhape and agreeable countenance; with respect to his difpofition, it is strongly delineated in the tranfactions of his reign. If his understanding was contemptible, his heart was the object of deteftation; we find him flothful, fhallow, proud, imperious, cowardly, libidinous, and inconftant, abject in adversity, and overbearing in fuccefs; contemned and hated by his fubjects, over whom he tyrannized to the utmost of his power; abhorred by the clergy, whom he oppreffed with exactions; and defpifed by all the neighbouring princes of Europe: though he might have paffed through life without incurring fuch a load of odium and contempt, had not his reign been perplexed by the turbulence of his barons, the rapacioufness of the pope, and the ambition of fuch a monarch as Philip Auguftus; his character could never have afforded one quality that would have exempted him from the difguft and fcorn of his people: nevertheless, it must be owned, that his reign is not altogether barren. of laudable tranfactions. He regulated the form of the government in the city of London, and feveral other places in the kingdom. He was the first who coined fterling money. Smollett. $57. Charater of HENRY III. The most obvious circumftance of Henry the Third's character, is his incapacity for government, which rendered him as much a prifoner in the hands of his own minifters and favourites, and as little at his own difpofal, as when detained a captive in the hands of his enemies. From this fource, rather than from infincerity and treachery, arofe his negligence in obferving his pro mifes; and he was too eafily induced, for the fake of prefent convenience, to facti3 B2 fice fice the lafting advantages arifing from the truft and confidence of his people. Hence were derived his profufion to favourites, his attachment to ftrangers, the variablenefs of his conduct, his hally refentments, and his fudden forgiveness and return of affection. Instead of reducing the dangerous power of his nobles, by obliging them to obferve the laws towards their inferiors, and fetting them the falutary example in his own government, he was feduced to imitate their conduct, and to make his arbitrary will, or rather that of his ministers, the rule of his actions. Inftead of accommodating himself, by a ftrict frugality, to the embarraffed fituation to which his revenue had been left, by the military expedition of his uncle, the difipations of his father, and the ufurpations of the barons; he was tempted to levy money by irregular exactions, which, without enriching himself, impoverished, or at leaft difgufted, his people. Of all men, nature feemed leaft to have fitted him for being a tyrant; yet are there inftances of oppreffion in his reign, which, though derived from the precedents left him by his predeceffors, had been carefully guarded against by the great charter; and are inconfiftent with all rules of good government: and, on the whole, we may fay, that greater abilities, with his good difpofitions, would have prevented him from falling into his faults; or, with worfe difpofitions, would have enabled him to maintain and defend them. Died November 16, 1272, aged 64. Reigned 56 years, Hume. § 58. Another Character of HENRY III. Henry was of a middle fize and robust make, and his countenance had a peculiar calt from his left eye-lid, which hung down fo far as to cover part of his eye. The particulars of his character may be gathered from the detail of his conduct. He was certainly a prince of very mean talents; irrefolute, inconftant, and capricious; proud, infolent, and arbitrary; arrogant in profperity, and abject in adverfity; profufe, rapacious, and choleric, though deftitute of liberality, œconomy, and courage; yet his continence was praife-worthy, as well as his averfion to cruelty; for he contented himfelf with punishing the rebels in their effects, when he might have glutted his revenge with their blood. He was prodigal even to excefs, and therefore always in necefity. Notwithstanding the great fums he levied from his fubjects, and though his occafions were never fo preffing, he could not help fquandering away his money upon worthless favourites, without confidering the difficulty he always found in obtaining fupplies from parlia ment. Smollett. $59. Charader of EDWARD I. The enterprizes finished by this prince, and the projects which he formed, and brought very near to a conclufion, were more prudent and more regularly conducted, and more advantageous to the folid intereft of this kingdom, than thofe which were undertaken in any reign either of his ancestors or fucceffors. He restored authority to the government, difordered by the weaknefs of his father; he maintained the laws against all the efforts of his turbulent barons; he fully annexed to the crown the principality of Wales; he took the wife and most effectual measures for reducing Scotland to a like condition; and though the equity of this latter enterprize may reafonably be queftioned, the circumstances of the two kingdoms promifed fuch fuccefs, and the advantage was fo vifible, of uniting the whole island under one head, that thofe who give great indulgence to reafons of ftate in the measures of princes, will not be apt to regard this part of his conduct with much feverity. But Edward, however exceptionable his character may appear on the head of justice, is the model of a politic and warlike king. He poffeffed induftry, penetration, courage, vigour, and enterprize. He was frugal in all expences that were not neceffary; he knew how to open the public treafures on with feverity; he was gracious and affable proper occafions; he punished criminals to his fervants and courtiers; and being of cife, and in the main well-proportioned in a majestic figure, expert at all bodily exerhis limbs, notwithstanding the great length of his legs, he was as well qualified to captivate the populace by his exterior appearance, as to gain the approbation of men of fenfe by his more folid virtues. Died July 7, 1307, aged 69. Reigned 35 years. Hume. § 60. Another Character of EDWARD I. He was a prince of very dignified appearance, tall in ftature; regular and comely in his features; with keen piercing eyes, and of an afpect that commanded reverence and efteein. His conftitution |