The History of England Volume II

Title Page, Copyright

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Table of Contents

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pp. v-xi

The History of England Volume II

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XII. Henry III

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pp. 3-72

MOST SCIENCES, in proportion as they encrease and improve, invent methods by which they facilitate their reasonings; and employing general theorems, are enabled to comprehend in a few propositions a great number of inferences and conclusions. History also, being a collection of facts which are multiplying with- ...

XIII. Edward I

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pp. 73-146

THE ENGLISH were as yet so little enured to obedience under a regular government, that the death of almost every king, since the conquest, had been attended with disorders; and the council, reflecting on the recent civil wars, and on the animosities which naturally remain after these great convulsions, had reason to apprehend dangerous consequences from the absence of the ...

XIV. Edward II

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pp. 147-181

THE PREPOSSESSIONS, entertained in favour of young Edward, kept the English from being fully sensible of the extreme loss, which they had sustained by the death of the great monarch, who filled the throne; and all men hastened with alacrity to take the oath of allegiance to his son and successor. This prince was in the ...

XV. Edward III

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pp. 182-241

T HE VIOLENT PARTY, which had taken arms against Edward II. and finally deposed that unfortunate monarch, deemed it requisite for their future security to pay so far an exterior obeisance to the law, as to desire a parliamentary indemnity for all their illegal proceedings; on account of the necessity, which, it was pretended, they lay under, of employing force against the Spensers ...

XVI. Edward III

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pp. 242-284

THE PRUDENT CONDUCT and great success of Edward in his foreign wars had excited a strong emulation and a military genius among the English nobility; and these turbulent barons, over-awed by the crown, gave now a more useful direction to their ambition, and attached themselves to a prince who led them to the acquisition of riches and of glory. ...

XVII. Richard II

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pp. 285-332

THE parliament, which was summoned soon after the king's accession, was both elected and assembled in tranquillity; and the great change, from a sovereign of consummate wisdom and experience to a boy of eleven years of age, was not immediately felt by the people. The habits of order and obedience, which the barons had been taught during the long reign of Edward, still ...

XVIII. Henry IV

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pp. 333-351

THE ENGLISH had so long been familiarized to the hereditary succession of their monarchs, the instances of departure from it had always born such strong symptoms of injustice and violence, and so little of a national choice or election, and the returns to the true line had ever been deemed such fortunate incidents in their history, that Henry was afraid, lest, in resting his ...

XIX. Henry V

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pp. 352-381

THE MANY JEALOUSIES, to which Henry IV.'s situation naturally exposed him, had so infected his temper, that he had entertained unreasonable suspicions with regard to the fidelity of his eldest son; and during the latter years of his life, he had excluded that prince from all share in public business, and was even displeased to see him ...

XX. Henry VI

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pp. 382-425

DURING THE REIGNS of the Lancastrian princes, the authority of parliament seems to have been more confirmed, and the privileges of the people more regarded, than during any former period; and the two preceding kings, though men of great spirit and abilities, abstained from such exertions of prerogative, as even ...

XXI. Henry VI

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pp. 426-454

A WEAK PRINCE, seated on the throne of England, had never failed, how gentle soever and innocent, to be infested with faction, discontent, rebellion, and civil commotions; and as the incapacity of Henry appeared e very day in a fuller light, these dangerous consequences began, from past experience, to be universally and justly apprehended. ...

XXII. Edward IV

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pp. 455-493

YOUNG EDWARD, now in his twentieth year, was of a temper well fitted to make his way through such a scene of war, havoc, and devastation, as must conduct him to the full possession of that crown, which he claimed from hereditary right, but which he had assumed from the tumultuary election alone of his own party. He was bold, active, enterprising; ...

XXIII. Edward V and Richard III

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pp. 494-525

DURING THE LATER YEARS of Edward IV. the nation, having, in a great measure, forgotten the bloody feuds between the two roses, and peaceably acquiescing in the established government, was agitated only by some court-intrigues, which, being restrained by the authority of the king, seemed no wise to endanger the public tranquillity. ...

Notes to the Second Volume

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pp. 526-537